Armed and Ready
by witchinmoonlight
Summary: Mechanica, having finished her ARMS Mecha Suit, enters the Grand Prix. She hopes to achieve her dream of taking home the Championship belt and proving to the entire world she doesn't need extendable ARMS to win the tournament. Of course, that's easier said than done. Yet as she rises to stardom, she also faces a lot of criticism. Can she soar to the top, or will she fall?
1. My Ultimate Creation

Author's Notes:

-I'm surprised by the lack of ARMS fanfics out there. Therefore, because of my overactive mind, you guys get a new story.

-The story is told entirely in Mechanica's first person point of view. (Although I might just be stating the obvious here...)

-Unlike some other stories, where I tend to focus a lot on plot line, emotion and character arcs, in addition to that, I'm going to try and be more detailed, but hopefully without making these chapters overly long like I've seen in some of my favorite fanfics. Let me know what you think.

Anyway, let's go and start this story! Rev those engines!

Sometimes I couldn't believe I had made it this far, yet as I walked into the arena to face my opponent, I wanted to believe that I was up for the challenge. I wasn't going to let anything or anyone stop me. My name is Marina. Yamada Marina. Although you might know me better as Mechanica. (Note that in Japan, they address a person by their surname and then their first name. This is called eastern order. I know it's confusing for you readers who are in America.) Anyway moving on... I'm the only ARMS fighter without ARMS, well, unless you count Twintelle's fabulous hair. My whole life I've been teased and mocked for wanting to have ARMS and enter the Grand Prix, both by normal people and by people with the extendable ARMS mutation. But now, all of those haters, all of those naysayers and Debbie-downers were going to eat their words, because as of today, after eight months, I had finished my ultimate creation; The ARMS Mecha Suit 5000! Made from scrapyard metals and a bunch of other stuff most people would call junk, this corn-colored suit was my ticket into the next Semiannual Arms Grand Prix.

I would have entered the last one, but unfortunately, my arm (my real right arm, not the one on my suit) had broken and I was unable to complete my creation. You have no idea how much teasing I received as a result of my personal long-term injury. Okay, perhaps I'm over-exaggerating, but it felt like it took forever for my arm to heal. But I must remind myself that it was only eight weeks. Anyway, personal injury aside, I eventually finished the suit.

I'd try and explain how the suit functions in its entirety, but I fear I might unintentionally fry your brains, so I'll give you the shortened version; It runs on a power cell containing powerful energy that's similar to nuclear power emitted by natural Uranium rods, but not exactly as dangerous. It also doesn't heat up as quickly or easily as Uranium rods do. (Of course there's still a cooling system though. All engines need one otherwise they run the risk of damage, malfunction or worst case scenario, spontaneous combustion.) The power cell also stops emitting energy when the suit is shut off. If the suit were completely active, and never turned off, the cell could keep the suit running for twenty years. (Assuming it didn't overheat, which was almost certain.)

I looked at the calendar. It was June 2nd, 3050. Tryouts for the Grand Prix were in two days, and would last for three, which meant that I had to leave sooner than I would like. Before leaving, I had to test the suit out and make sure everything was working. I left my bedroom (which also doubled as my workshop) and using a remote control, I guided the mecha suit to my training grounds; The Scrapyard. I breathed in, put on my goggles back over my eyes and climbed into the mecha suit. I put the remote control into a special box that could only be opened with my fingerprint, and got myself situated into my suit. I grabbed the shift knob (similar to what you'd see in a car) and thrust them forward, causing my arms to go forward and punch. The targets, which were wooden dummies, were destroyed. I pretended that an ARMS fighter was punching me so I pulled the knobs backwards, shielding myself from an imaginary threat by creating this blue circular disk, which actually had my symbol on there for some reason.

Thrusting both knob handles at once would allow me to grab someone. I grabbed a target, spun it around and tossed it onto the other side of the field. After a minute or two of consistent punching, I felt a quick, strong vibration throughout the suit before it vanished. That means the rush attack was ready! I tested it out by pressing the buttons on the side of the knobs and it worked perfectly. I then tested out the jet pack to hover in midair and to dash. Check and check. Everything was working properly. I got out of the suit and looked at a photo across the room; me, my father and Max Brass. I was five years old at the time, and I was wearing a yellow dress that day. I looked so happy, smiling and holding up my fingers in a peace sign. I wondered if he would remember the photo when I faced him. Or even if I would face him. I was about to find dad and show him, but I didn't have to. He was already there.

My father was once a strong man, but time and a rare non-hereditary disease had taken his toll on him. His once brown hair was now partially grey, he had trouble walking, so he was in a wheelchair most of the time, and he had large circular glasses over his hazel eyes. He wore a lab coat over a black dress shirt with a white collar and black pants. He wore grey socks and shoes caked with oil on them.

"Marina," he began. "I'm so proud of you."

I smiled. "Thank you father. Do you have your things packed?"

He looked sad. "Marina," he began. "as much as I would like to accompany you to the Grand Prix, I can't go with you."

I gasped and looked at him sadly. "Why not?"

He sighed. "Look at me here. I can barely walk, and even if I could, I'm growing old and fragile. My health is deteriorating faster than I could have imagined. You already have your big suit to deal with. Dragging me along would slow you down. If I weren't confined to this wheelchair, I would come with you, but alas, I can not."

"But that means no one will be there to help me! Who will carry my ARMS gloves? Who will emotionally support me if/when people criticize me?"

I repeated what I said to myself in my mind. I was selfish. My father suggested, "What about your friends? Can't they come?"

"Most of them have already left for vacation in some foreign paradise or island country."

He paused for a moment, trying to think of a solution. "What about Veronica?"

"She's busy working two jobs to save up money for college, remember?" I reminded him. "I'm not going to let her dreams of being a doctor be crushed just so that she can aid me with mine."

I sighed. Was I asking for too much?

"Even if I can't be there to see you in person, just remember that I'll be watching them from home and I'm supporting you all the way." He pulled me into his arms and gave me a big hug. "Good luck, my little tinkerer. Now get out there and show em what you're made of!"

"Love ya dad." I kissed him on the cheek.

"You best be going. Your plane leaves in a few hours."

"Love you father. Goodbye."

"Ganbatte kudasai, Marina. Ki wo tsukete." **(Good luck, Marina. Take care.)**

I grabbed my luggage and I knew I wouldn't be seeing my father, or my home, for a long time. I decided to do one last task before leaving the airport. With my backpack on my back, my suitcase in my mecha bot, I walked the pathway all too familiar to me. After five minutes, I had made it to my destination. I entered through the gate, taking my suit with me and trying not to cause too much damage to this sacred site. I looked through the headstones, eventually finding one that read,

 _In loving memory of Yamada Miwa  
_

 _November 30th, 3014- January 20th, 3040_

 _Beloved mother and wife_

 _Rest in peace_

I knelled before the grave and put a white chrysanthemum onto her gravestone.

"Hello... Mother. I'm sorry I haven't been able to visit as often as I would like. I've been busy working on ARMS Mecha suit." I paused and nodded to my creation, which knelled in respect at my command. "It's finally done. Mother... If you can, give me your strength, your confidence, and your ability to be graceful under fire. I'm fearful that people will criticize me and fear I'm not a legitimate fighter in the Grand Prix due to my lack of extendable ARMS. If only... you were here... You could come with me, and reassure that haters won't hurt me. But alas, dad's health is getting worse, and he can not travel. I'm getting really worried about him. All of my friends are busy and can't come. I feel so alone..." I cried a little. My tears fell onto her grave. "I love you, mom. I miss you everyday and there's never a day that passes where I don't think of you." I wiped away my tears and looked up towards the sky. On the opposite side of the world, the ARMS Grand Prix was waiting for me. "As much as I'd like to stay here longer, I can not." I got up and down at the grave one last time. "Sayonara... mother."

I left the graveyard, feeling only a little better than when I had walked in. Unfortunately, this visit, as much as it had to be done, it only reminded me how alone I truly was. Then, it started pouring. Thankfully, the suit was waterproof, but the rain did not help lighten my somber mood.

* * *

I had gotten to the airport easily thanks to my with jet pack. Despite the bad weather, I was able to fly. It also helped that the pouring rain didn't last for very long. I took my items and entered the airport, looking for the ticket vendor. I saw the desk about a hundred feet away, which had a line with about ten people. As I waited in line, I tried to think of a strategy for fighting against opponents in the ring. I didn't know anything about strategy except for maybe using the ARMS I have and their abilities to their full extent. At the current moment, I didn't have a set of ARMS to call my own. You see, every fighter gets three pairs of randomly selected ARMS by the ARMS League. But first I would have to get there and pass tryouts to actually get them. I knew ARMS had different abilities, like fire, electricity, wind, ice, stun, explosion, blind, and... I think that was all of them. Oh wait, there's also poison, but hardly anyone actually uses it. How to use different abilities to my advantage however? That was the trickier part. Ice and electric arms have similar effect, and so do fire and explosion...

Eventually, after about eight minutes of waiting, I was next in line and the guy ahead of me was very quick.

"Next," the vendor said.

I walked up to the counter. The guy stared at me blankly, most likely because I was soaked from head to toe.

"Wonderful weather we're having." I joked. "One ticket to New York City. It should already be purchased in the name of Yamada Sora."

The clerk looked at me skeptically. "You do not look like an old man. You're like what, fourteen years old?"

"Fifteen actually. I'm his daughter, and I'm going to participate in the ARMS tournament."

He laughed hysterically, much to my annoyance. "You?! You're only a child! And you lack the extendable ARMS the fighters use!"

"That's why I have this suit." I motioned to the Mecha suit. "Need a demonstration?"

"No, but still, you're too young to buy a ticket and too young for the tournament."

"Wrong, sir! There is no age limit. Remember Ribbon Girl? She's only seventeen and yet she made the journey from California to New York City by plane. What's two years younger make in terms of a difference?" I refuted.

He was taken aback. I had him right where I wanted him. "Okay, you win. Here you go. Flight A110 should be arriving in one hour and 30 minutes."

He handed me the ticket and I left. After getting through airport security and having my bags inspected, there was one other issue that had to be dealt with. I was standing outside the metal detector lines where non-flight passengers couldn't go, speaking to a quartet of airport security guards, two men and two women. The men both had dark brown hair and the same green eyes. It was hard to tell them apart. The two women had different looks; light brown hair and red eyes, and blonde hair and blue eyes.

"How exactly are we supposed to transport it?" one of the two male airport security guards asked, pointing to the suit.

"All of our cargo planes have left." the other man chimed in. "We can't just have her carry it with her in the economy class. It'll take up too much space and could tip the plane."

A woman with brown hair looked at the robotic suit. "How heavy is it?"

"500 kilograms." I answered.

"Eeesh, that's heavy." the blue-eyed woman said. "When is your plane supposed to arrive?"

I responded. "The man at the counter told me that Flight A110 is supposed to arrive in one and a half hours."

The red-eyed woman looked at something on a tablet. "Flight A110. Goes from Hong Kong to Toyko, and then Toyko to New York. Has it's first class and economy class section booked..." She gasped. "Uh oh... We got a problem..."

"Why are you rambling on about that last detail? It's irrelevant to the quandary we're in." the first man said.

"Umm... We got a minor problem here." she responded. "Flight A110 is entirely booked."

"Booked?!" I exclaimed. "Why would he tell me to get on that flight if it's booked?!"

"Calm down, miss."

I realized that the ticket vendor never meant for me to get to New York City. He doubted me and my ability to enter the ARMS Tournament. I felt boiling anger rage in my chest. I tried to keep calm and hide my emotions, but the guards could tell I was angry.

One of them asked, "What's wrong?"

I told them how the ticket vendor purposely deceived me.

"Note to self; Report him to the boss and ask for him to be fired." the blond haired woman noted.

"I've got an idea. There's another plane that's supposed to be arriving in about ten minutes. It has no first class passengers and economy is almost entirely booked. There wouldn't be any room for Marina and her suit in economy class, but she could take the first class economy, leaving plenty room for her suit and making sure no one else in first class sabotages it." the red-eyed woman suggested.

"But that would violate the rules, wouldn't it?" the first man asked.

"Your ticket isn't even first class it?" the second man asked.

I got my ticket and showed it to the airport security officers. I looked at it and saw the words _Economy class ticket Tokyo to New York_ "It isn't."

The guys and girls examined it. The second man suggested, "Well then... We could her suit in the first class department of the other plane, if she will accept it."

"But what about the girl?" the red-eyed woman asked. "Can we legally let her go for first class with an economy ticket?"

"Hmm... This is tricky..." the first man turned to me. "Tell ya what, we'll let you and your suit in first class if you don't tell anyone."

"Alright, I won't tell anyone. Although there's one problem." I turned to them. "How are we going to get the suit on and off of there?"

"We'll find a way." the red-eyed woman said.

After a lot of difficult moving, which caused a ten minute delay in departure time, and using a lot of chains to prevent the suit from flying in case of turbulence, the plane finally took off. Since today's smartphones posed no threat to the communication signal, they were allowed to be used during the flight. I told my dad that I was on the plane and that I would keep him posted on the news of my rise to ARMS stardom. I sighed. I decided not to spend all my time on my phone and set aside it to charge. Not distracted by technology, my thoughts began to torment me. I remembered last year's matches (I watched most, if not, all of them while my arm was healing), and how amazing and impressive the ARMS fighters were. One of the first matches of the Winter Grand Prix was Ribbon Girl vs Twintelle.

The girls were on Ribbon Girl's stage, the Ribbon Ring. Ribbon Girl had two different ARMS, a Sparky on her right and a Popper on her left, while Twintelle went for Chillas on both of her arms. Both Twintelle and Ribbon had won one round, so this third round was for all the marbles. Twintelle, who was low on health and had only ten more seconds to beat Ribbon Girl, charged up her punches and temporarily froze Ribbon Girl in place. The pop star was nearly immobilized for a few seconds and was almost grabbed by the movie star, which would have defeated her, but Ribbon Girl threw a charged punch at her, electrically stunning Twintelle and then she was knocked out by the singer.

"K.O!" the announcer exclaimed.

"The winner is Ribbon Girl!" Biff, the ARMS commenter, declared.

"Ribbonanza!" she exclaimed.

"Aw..." Twintelle said.

I was always a fan of Ribbon Girl. Light on her feet and quick to the punch. She was so amazing. But was I good enough to compete with her, or anyone else for that matter? I didn't know and I also couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealously and envy. All of last year's fighters, from Spring Man to Helix and who knows how many others, had fans, friends, family and/or personal assistants to help them and or watch them in combat. I was the new kid on the block, and I had no one on my side. What if I failed my first and possibly only match? Was I a lamb sending myself to the slaughter?

 _Come on Marina, don't think like that! This is your dream! You've always wanted this! You should be excited! You should be happy!  
_

But the problem was, I wasn't.


	2. The Rise of Mechanica

By the time the plane had landed, ARMS Grand Prix tryouts had already started not too long ago. While the airport workers worked to get my suit of the the first-class department, I showed the security agents my passport, got my luggage and got my Yen converted to American dollars. After doing all of that, I sat on a bench next to someone entering the ARMS Tournament. At least, I assumed that's why she was there. She was a woman in her early 20's with pale skin, short purple hair in a pixie cut, blue-ish purple eyes with spiral irises, and violet purple arms with blue and purple gems on them. She wore a dark purple skirt with built-in shorts, a lavender shoulder-sleeve top, with navy blue fingerless gloves and royal purple heels. She also wore amethyst earrings and a purple diamond necklace.

She held a purple mask in her hand and put it into her carry on bag before turning to face me. "So, if you're just going to fly to the ARMS Center using the jet pack on your suit, why didn't you just fly over the Pacific Ocean?"

"Too dangerous." I told her. "That jet pack isn't supposed to fly for extremely long distances. If it were to suddenly malfunction, I'd fall right into the Pacific ocean. And I would go down along with my suit!"

"You make a good point." She looked over at me. Or more specifically, my arms. "So you have no extendable ARMS?"

"Yeah, I made a suit due my lack of extendable ARMS. The airport employees are working to get it out of the first class department." I looked at her. "Are you entering the ARMS Grand Prix?"

"Wasn't planning on it."

"Really? I'm surprised."

"That's what everyone tells me." she stated. "My folks tell me I should enter the tournament, but just because I have powerful ARMS and special powers doesn't mean that I'm required to enter the tournament. I just want to see the world, live a normal life, possibly even settle down one day and start a family."

"I guess you have a point there."

A quartet of men pushed forth a dolly with a large metal platform. On top of it was my suit. They then set it on the ground. "Here you go, Marina. One high-tech robotic ARMS suit." one of them said.

"Thank you, good sirs."

I gave each of them a $5 bill for their trouble, took the remote and guided myself and my suit out of the airport. I got into my suit, activated the jet pack and took off for the ARMS League Gym.

* * *

I had recently arrived at the ARMS League Gym. I had stopped for a brief moment to admire the place. The building was a five story mansion sized gym with the ARMS League symbol towards the top of the building. Despite the glare of the bright sun, I could tell that the ARMS League logo was actually made out of solid gold.

 _Wow, Max Brass is rich._ I thought.

I entered the building and saw a few ARMS fighters relaxing in the lobby. I noticed that in the bottom right corner of the room were two different fighters sitting on a couch; a girl with long hair in twin tails, and another with a peppermint? in her hair. Was that her hair style or was it an accessory? I knew who the first one was, that was Twintelle, but who was the other? I didn't remember seeing her last year. I was amazed that no one noticed my entrance, considering how loud my suit is when it moves. Or perhaps no one cared.

I walked to the front desk. "Name?" the guy asked.

"Uh, Mar..."

"Wait, are you giving them your real name?" a voice asked.

I looked towards the voice. A man with red spiraled irises had entered the room. He had arms made of chains. I knew this guy anywhere; Ninjara, who had recently graduated from Ninja College (or Rasen Ninjutsu University) got eliminated during his seventh match last year. He made it surprisingly far in a tournament of 100 people.

"Uh. Yeah. Is that... a bad thing?" I slowly responded.

"Well, generally, you're expected to choose a fighter name for yourself. Mainly to keep your identity as a non-fighter separate from your normal self when you're in the ring."

"Really? I hadn't even thought of that." I looked at him. "What could I possibly call myself?"

The student of stealth mused to himself. "Hmm... You've got a nice Mecha suit there. How about Mechagirl?"

"No, that won't do. It has to be something clever, something that shows how talented I am by making this mechanical arms suit. Got any other ideas?"

He shrugged. "I got nothing."

"Maybe it should be based off part of my real name... Mechanicerina? No, that's horrible. Marchanica? No wait, Mechanica! Yes, Mechanica! I like that. It has a nice ring to it." I turned back to the guy at the counter. "My name is Mechanica. You should already have a file of the Scrapyard on there since I submitted it online before the last Grand Prix but couldn't finish my suit due to a broken arm."

"We already built it. We thought you would be here last Grand Prix, but once you broke your arm, it became an unused stage. You're all set for your tryout. You'll be given a room at the Buster Beach resort. Just let me make a few phone calls and you'll be all set. You will be called in about three to five hours before your tryout and tested on your skills. Good luck!"

Ninjara then left without saying another word, leaving me all alone. While the guy at the desk made some phone calls, I looked again at the bottom right corner, only to find that the candy girl had vanished. Eventually I got my room key and checked in at the hotel. Good news; They didn't charge any rent fee for keeping the room for so long. Bad news; I had to pay an electric bill for every week that I stayed. I was not made of money. All I got is $150 dollars. Good grief, Yens were low in value compared to American dollars.

 _I need to get a job. But who would even be willing to hire me?_

I was fifteen years old, and a foreigner. I was young, had no real job experience and I wasn't from this country. I needed a plan before I went broke and get kicked out. But what? I had no time to answer that. I got a phone call from an unknown number. I had a feeling it was the ARMS League calling to confirm my tryout time.

I pressed answer. "Hello?"

"Hello, this is Mark from the ARMS League Corporation of America. Is this the number of Marina Yamada, or the fighter alias of Mechanica?"

I recognized the voice. It was the guy behind the counter when I told him my fighter alias. "Yes, that's me."

"Your tryout is today at 8pm. If you can not make this time, let us know immediately."

I looked at the clock. 7:00pm. "I'll be there."

"Excellent. Report to Gym 202, second floor. If you take the elevator in the lobby, it should be to your left four doors down. Have a good day."

He hung up. I looked at the clock again. 7:02. I was surprised I didn't feel hungry or tired. Maybe it was just jet lag. Japan was 13 hours ahead of New York's Eastern Coast time. And that flight was nearly 13 hours long. I didn't even remember what my dream was about. I tried to think of what to do in the meantime. I could do some training, read a book, watch Kid Cobra's livestream or videos of Ribbon Girl.

Suddenly, a flashback came over me. I remembered this moment, even if the details were a bit fuzzy. I was three years old, and I was being held in my mother's arms. Despite my young age at the time of her death, I remember her appearance. She was a tall woman with a slender figure and she was absolutely beautiful. Her angelic face was accented by her lavender-pink eyes and raven black hair that reached to her knees. She wore a purple kimono and a cherry blossom in her hair.

I saw a picture of a strong, muscular man with brown arms like leather and a blue suit with a golden helmet with a fist on top of it on a magazine, fighting an opponent I didn't recognize. My mom took the magazine and I started crying. I don't remember why, but I was.

She put the magazine back in my hands and I looked at the image again. A few seconds later I asked, "Who sis he?"

"Who is he? That's Max Brass. The best ARMS Champion in the world."

"He looks... so strong."

"Yes he is, and that's why nobody has beaten him in the last... How many victories in a row does he have now?"

"Eight wins in a row." my dad answered. "He broke his previous win-streak record as of three years ago."

And somehow, from that very moment, I knew I wanted to be an ARMS Champion. I wanted to challenge Max Brass and win. I then remembered meeting with Max Brass for the first and so far, only time. I was five years old. My parents both had the day off and my dad had asked for Max Brass to come here to get his autograph and a photo of us with him for me. Normally, he wouldn't have gone through the trouble to follow through on this special request, but since he happened to be there (why I don't really know), he decided to stop by and fulfill my dad's request.

I remembered that day as if it had only been yesterday. I was wearing a yellow dress and nice black shoes for a role I had in a class act. My hair was still in its short style. I heard the doorbell ring. My father answered the door.

"You called for the Champion?" Max Brass asked with a smug look on his face.

"Max Brass!" I exclaimed.

"We're so happy you could make it." my father said.

He signed an autograph on my poster (which I still have in my room to this day) and he agreed to do a few photos. I stood behind him. He then held me up with his arm. I was confused at first, but I smiled, cheered and went along with it.

My mom held up the camera. "Smile!"

I held up my fingers in a peace sign as I held on to his arm. It was one of the best days of my life. I wondered if he remembered that day and just how happy I was to see him.

My flashback was soon brought to a halt. I looked at the clock. 7:40. I needed to get moving. I got my suit and made my way towards the gym.

* * *

I arrived at the gym about five minutes before the tryout. But where were the judges? I looked at the table where the judges were supposed to be. I saw a note.

 _To Mechanica,_

 _If you came here, then you came to the wrong place. Head to the Teleporter Lobby and go to the Scrapyard. We will be waiting._

I went down to the Teleporter Lobby, which was not too far from the main lobby in the ARMS League Gym. I saw several sea green circles on the ground with a sort of blue glow around each of them. I saw a teleport slot that had a sign above it saying Scrapyard. It also had my logo on it. I stepped onto the slot and I was transported to the Scrapyard.

They got everything about the stage right. The metal pipes towards the center of the stage, the stickers of Ribbon Girl in my workshop, even the photo of me, my father and Max Brass. How did they know about that?

"Greetings Mechanica." said one of the judges.

The judges sat at a table nearby the stage. There were four of them; three men and one woman. The woman was towards the right side of the table. She looked amused and intrigued by my suit. The others had varying reactions to seeing me in my suit for the first time. The second guy asked, "So, you think your strong enough to compete in the ARMS Tournament, huh?"

"Uh, yeah."

The first judge smirked. "Well then, do you think you can take on 100 opponents?"

"A hundred enemies?!"

I gawked in a mixture of complete confusion and terror. 100 opponents?! _Were they mad?!_

"How long have you guys been doing this test?" I asked.

"We've done this for the last five years. And it just got even harder as of last year's Summer ARMS Grand Prix." the third one answered.

"You don't have to beat all 100 of them. In fact, it's very rare that anyone actually does. So far, the only person we've seen accomplish this is a strange man named Misango, called the spirited fighter. As long as you can get 50 of them, you'll be automatically qualified for the tournament." the first one added.

My heart gave a terrible jolt. "And if I don't?"

"If you don't get 50, you'll be placed on a call-back list, and after tryouts are done, you may or may not be accepted in, depending on how good or bad the others are."

"Now look behind you, six o'clock." the second one ordered.

I followed his order and two tables of ARMS appeared before my eyes.

"Since you're new, we got some new ARMS for ya. If you are accepted in, these ARMS will become yours. Now you won't be able to switch ARMS in between waves, so choose wisely." the third one said.

"Hmm... Since I have never seen these ARMS, I do not know what their abilities are. Describe their abilities in full detail."

"The first one is called the Revolver. It is a lightweight multi-shot arm, allowing you to fire multiple projectiles at once. It contains an electric attribute, and since three bullets are fired, it is very easy to stun enemies with. It has a default of 70 damage points."

"Alright. What about the second one?"

"The second is the Whammer. It is a heavyweight hammer arm with a stun attribute. If you hit enemies with it while it is charged, it can stun enemies for a brief amount of time. It's kinda like whack-a-mole!" I heard him chuckle. "It has a default of 100 damage."

"And the third?"

"The third one is the Homie. It is a mediumweight missile arm with an explosive attribute, which can cause a lot of damage. Missile arms are specifically designed to lock on to a target. Good luck to your foes trying to escape from them! It has a default of 70 hit points."

"Hmm..."

I thought over my options carefully. I wanted to be able to stop opponents in their tracks, especially if there were going to be a lot of them. I wanted to have one of the more powerful arms, although Whammer might slow me down. Hmm.. After a few more seconds, I choose the Revolver on my right and the Homie on my left.

The trial had began. These weird grey slime drones appeared out of nowhere. I threw punches towards them. They went down in one hit. After defeating five of them, I then realized that they weren't even attacking me. Why was this? Were they trying to trick me? Was the test easier than the judges made it seem? I guarded myself briefly and then stayed still for a moments, not even guarding myself, expecting one to attack. Nothing. I shrugged it off and beat the rest of the first wave.

"Ha! You made this seem difficult!"

Out of nowhere, one of them grabbed me and a bomb was dropped towards the center of the stage, destroying two drones. I was thrown in the lower right corner of the stage. Ouch. I realized that setup was a trick. They set the first ten to not attack on purpose! I was angry, but I shoved the deception aside and continued fighting. They threw charged punches towards me, stunning me with my own weapon. I jumped up to avoid two sets of charged Revolver shots. After taking out some foes with punches, I then grabbed one enemy and threw it into another. I glanced at a screen from afar for a moment. It showed my health bar, my rush triangle and how many enemies I had defeated. 19. There was only one enemy of the second wave left and I got them with a Homie.

The third wave had begun. A small robot drone dropped a health drink into the center of the stage and I immediately went towards it. Slowly I could feel my suit (and even myself) regain strength and endurance. The drones wouldn't just stop attacking though. I had to continue. I dashed to the side and dodged their moves. As I defeated more opponents, I noticed that many of them were using one of the arms I was using. The first 20 all had Revolvers on both hands! I noticed other arms popped up on the drones as well. One had a Revolver and a Sparky and another had a Revolver and a Slapamander. I felt a strong vibration throughout my suit. Since these enemies could be taken out in one hit, it would be a waste of time and effort to use the rush attack. So I thrust the handles forward even faster, all while trying to avoid being hit by Revolvers, both charged and uncharged.

Pretty soon, I had 30 enemies down. Just 20 more... I quickly stepped in the health circle and continuing firing at the nearest drones. I looked closer to my left and noticed one of them was about to grab me. I fired a charged shot at it and then was tossed across the room. I was getting hit repetitively with Whammers and Revolvers. I tried to guard, but I was soon grabbed and thrown aside. I had lost over half of my health. I needed a few plan, and fast. I dashed up the elevated platform to give myself some space between me and the horde of enemies.

I fired my shots, uncharged, at four different foes, then threw one drone into the last one, making 40. A health potion appeared and I jumped right into the circle. I shielded myself from the oncoming punches, but I was hesitant for too long and was grabbed one of the drones. I was thrown into an enemy and I started firing again at them again. It was then this game of going back and forth between guarding, firing and dashing to avoid being hit. At 48, I realized that I had less than a quarter of my health left.

 _Come on, Mechanica! You can do this!_

I got the last two enemies with health in the double digits. I stepped into the health circle and moved to dodge some Homies coming my way and grabbed the guy who was throwing them and threw him at the other guy who was throwing them. I had roughly half of my health left and I continued fighting them. Before I knew it, I was at 60. I stepped into the circle, only to be grabbed five seconds later. I threw some punches, got tossed around twice, throw a punch at the guy to my left, thrown once more, and I was down for the count. Final score; 66.

"Not bad, not bad. If we swapped out a few of yer parts, you'd be doin' even better!" the first one exclaimed.

"Very impressive. Most contenders don't even make it past 50." the woman commented.

The enemies vanished as I got up. "Thank you."

"So what do you think boys?"

"She's pretty impressive."

"I agree."

"Um... As impressive as her skills are, is her suit even legal?"

Oh dear... I was worried that would be brought up...

"Of course it is!" the woman proclaimed.

"Why wouldn't it be?" the first one asked.

The second one answered, "There's no rule that allows mechanical suits to be used in place of arms."

"But there's no rule that says she can't!"

"WHAT'S GOING ON IN HERE?!" a voice asked angrily.

We all turned to see the Champion of Champions; Max Brass. The strong burly fighter stood there, glaring at the judge.

"Well?"

"Mr. Brass, her suit is..." he began.

"There's no rule that specifically forbids the use of mechanical suits. Also, you bent and broke the rules before. You allowed in Twintelle, who has hair ARMS, Misango and his little spirit friend and even the robotic duo Byte and Barq. There's no reason for you to deny her entry into the Grand Prix." The judge stuttered. Brass took off his mask and glared at him. "You let her in, now. Or else."

"Okay..." He sighed. "You win."

They gave me a sack of coins called ARMS Tokens and a few other things like a free energy drink. They told me that the ARMS Tokens could be used for getting new ARMS or for the picture gallery (which they were still expanding). The judges quickly moved out to the next constant's stage, leaving me alone with the champion. For a few moments, I saw that he had blue eyes with spiraled irises. Was it just me, or did they look like Spring Man's eyes? Without another word, he put his mask back on and I tried to say something without stuttering like a fool.

"Um, thank you?"

He smiled and said, "No problem. That second judge is always a stick in the mud. Sometimes I wonder if I should fire him..."

"I agree. On the stick in the mud part." We both chuckled briefly. I looked at him curiously. "So why did you defend me? Were you just trying to do me a favor once again?"

He looked at me, completely baffled. "Once again?"

"Yeah. Don't you remember when you came over to my place and got a photo with me and my dad?"

"I'm sorry, kid, but I don't. I have honestly never seen you before." I stood there, stunned. Max Brass... didn't... he didn't remember me? My train of thought was derailed as I heard a buzzing vibration from Brass's cellphone. He sighed. "I have to get going. Good luck, rookie. You're gonna need it."

He left me there in the stadium. I slumped to the ground in defeat, feeling partially broken and dumbfounded. How could he have forgotten how he went out of his way to fulfill a fan's request? There was proof that I had a picture with him right on the wall for crying out loud!

 _How did he not notice?!_ I thought to myself.

I was tempted to cry, but I didn't. I clinched the fist of my robot. If The Commish didn't remember who I was, I was going to make him remember. Even if it means reminding him of the truth in his own turf and using it to stun him. Assuming I can even get there. It had been a long day. After a few minutes of being alone in the scrapyard, I made my way back to the portal and left my sorrow behind.


	3. A Few True Friends

After my tryout and discovering that Max Brass didn't remember me, I went back to my room. I put my suit on the empty bed, powered it down, and looked at the digital clock. 8:20pm. Surprisingly, I didn't feel much of the effects of jet lag. Or is that because I got eight hours of sleep and a good meal during the flight? I wasn't sure. I tried to think about what to do next. I sent a message to my dad, telling him that I got into the Grand Prix and then I texted Veronica,

 _Hey girl. Guess what? I got into the ARMS Grand Prix._

A few minutes later, she responded with, _They let you in? Nice! Although you do realize how early it is? You know I usually sleep past this hour!  
_

Oh dang it. I forgot that Japan is 13 hours ahead of U.S Eastern Time. For her, it was 9:20 in the morning and she slept until ten. _Apologies._ _I'm still trying to adjust to the new time zone._

 _It's fine. How bad do you feel the jet lag?_

 _Not very bad. Heck, I'm not sure I feel anything bad at all. Then again, I did get eight hours of sleep plus a decent meal._

 _Your cardigan rhythm and eating patterns are being thrown out of whack, even if you don't realize it._

 _You're probably right._

I continued the conversation and told her about my tryout.

 _A hundred opponents?!_ she texted back. _That's insane!_

 _Ikr?_

 _How many did you beat?_

 _The minimum requirement for immediate qualification was 50. I got 66. They said it's rare for someone to beat 1 vs 100. Only one person has ever done it!_

 _Really? Do you know who that person is?_

 _I think they said his name is Misango, the spirited fighter. I have no idea who he is though._

 _Misango. Never heard of him. I gotta get going. My second job starts soon! Btw, if you find anything out about this spirit fighter, tell me._

After she sent me that message, I heard and felt my stomach growl. It was 8:45. I decided to go and find some food. I went down the elevator to the lobby and tried to find my way to the food court. Luckily, a sign pointed me in the right direction. I went to the food court and looked at the menu. After looking at it, I also saw the employee behind the counter was snoozing. She had pale skin and red hair that reached to her shoulders. She wore a white shirt with shoulder sleeves and black pants. As far as I could tell, she was the only employee working here. I wanted food, but at the same time, I didn't want to disturb her. She looked so peaceful.

"Maybe I should just skip dinner..." I mumbled to myself.

"Huh? Skip what?" a weary voice said.

The snoozing employee woke up. Not only did her green eyes look weary, she also had big dark circles under them. Her name tag read _Suzie_. Because of her sleeping habits, I secretly nicknamed her Snoozing Suzie.

"Are you okay?" I asked. "You look..."

"Tired?" She smiled crazily and laughed. "Yes, I get that all time. Ever since I started working the night shift four days ago." She laughed again, this time without much insanity in her voice.

"I'll take a chicken pot pie and a small soda."

"That'll be $5.50."

I handed her the money, got my tray of food and sat at the nearest table. Since it was well past the dinner rush, the food court was a ghost town. I got a cup of Sprite from the soda machine and started eating my meal. For a while, it was deserted. I thought of who this Misango could be. They called him the spirited fighter. What did that mean? Was he dedicated to fighting? Was a witchdoctor or voodoo spiritual priest? Was he a bridge between the spirit world and this world?

I became so lost in my thoughts that I didn't realize someone had joined me at my table. I looked away.

"You look lonely." a feminine voice said.

"I guess you could say that." I responded.

I heard the sound of a metal spoon clinking into a glass dish. "So uh, where are your ARMS?"

"Huh? Oh, my ARMS Mecha Suit's in my room."

"An ARMS suit, eh?"

I turned to her and asked, "Yeah. I got a picture of me in my suit. Wanna see it?"

She smiled. "Sure!"

I did a double take. "Ribbon Girl?!"

The popstar winked. She was dressed in her normal clothing, but there was one major difference in her appearance; She had her hair down and the ribbon she used to keep up her ponytail was now camouflaged in with her right arm. If it weren't for the fact that a few strings were hanging loose from her arm, I never would have seen the ribbon.

"Surprised to see me?" she asked after taking another bite of ice cream.

I gave her my phone so she could see the picture. "Y... Yeah. It.. it's just that... I'm just a normal girl, and you're famous. Why would you even talk to me?"

"Oh, don't be so hard on yourself." She handed my phone back to me. "I gotta say, that suit looks pretty impressive."

"You really think so?"

"Yeah, it looks so complicated."

"The long explanation of how it works would fry your brain."

"Ok, then, can you give me a shorted version?"

I gave her the shortened version of how the suit worked.

"Wow, that sounds like a complex and time-consuming project." Ribbon Girl remarked.

"Yeah, it was." I finished my meal and took another sip of Sprite. "It took several months. Not to mention the two month delay..."

"Two month delay? Were you missing supplies?"

"No, I broke my arm."

"Ouch."

"Yeah. Ouch. I guess I better hit the hay." I stopped briefly, before walking away. "Also, by the way, do you mind if I get your autograph later?"

"Sure, no problem! Sleep well!"

I went back to my room and had a strange dream that night. It started with a horrible flashback. I was five years old, and I was returning home from school. I took the path I had always taken by foot. After walking for 10 minutes, I had made it back home. Mom was unconscious, having collapsed onto the floor only mere seconds before my arrival, according to dad. I looked at her.

"Mom? Why are you sleeping on the floor?"

I looked upon my dad's face as he hung up. I knew this was serious. A few moments later, the emergency workers arrived and took her to the hospital. The doctors had done some medical tests and revealed that she was suffering from Bovineitis, a rare and almost always deadly disease from a rare species of cow that was created due to an ARMS experiment in the 2990's that went horribly wrong. (Don't ask. It's a long story.) The rare mutated cows were wiped out or turned back to normal, but scientists are still combating the malicious disease to this day. Luckily, it's nowhere in my home country, or in the United States. At least, as far as I can tell. How she got the disease is not entirely known, but since she had been traveling the world on a three month long business trip prior to her death, she probably caught a strain of virus from an infected person. Which is strange, considering that there's only one way for it to spread; direct contact with an infected person's blood.

Unfortunately for my mother, she had discovered it in the late stages and was dead within a month. The really bad thing about Bovineitis is that if it's not cured within the first two stages, the third and final stage is almost impossible to cure, and many victims don't survive treatment. I remembered the day I arrived back at the house, only to find that mother would never return. January 20th, 3040. It was the worst day of my life. I was six years old, and after being teased by Karai and her friends, I wanted, more than ever, for my mother to comfort me.

I entered my room and dropped my backpack onto the floor in shock. I saw dad crying. He was kneeling, his arm on the couch cushion, sobbing into his right arm. I had never seen him cry before.

I approached him slowly. "Daddy? What's wrong?" He looked at me, turned away and cried some more. "Daddy?"

He nodded his head no slowly. "Marina..." He spoke, trying to prevent himself from sobbing. "Miwa is gone..."

"Mom? No, this, this can't be! Why?! What did she ever do to anyone?! WHY?!"

I broke down crying too. Neither of us knew what to say to each other. Then the image of us sobbing in sorrow vanished, like ripples in a puddle of water. The vision changed to Karai. Karai was a black-haired, pale-skinned girl with green eyes and wore a lot of makeup, even when she was a little girl. She wore black eyeshadow, mascara, eyeliner, a small bit of blush and concealer. No blemishes, no hair except for her eyebrows and her hair on her head. She looked flawless. She wore black pants with a dark grey mini skirt and a dark blue spaghetti strap top along with black slipper flats, a lightning bolt choker and a bracelet of skulls.

"Honestly, Marina, when are you going to learn?" she asked. "You have no extendable ARMS. You can't possibly build a suit with ARMS and even if you could, would it really even work?"

I felt so angry and so sad at the same time. Those words are what she taunted me with numerous times, whether it be in person, or in a letter. (Sadly, she knows where I live.) Then I heard an evil laughter echoing and the sounds of fast footsteps running through a corridor as flashing red lights blinked and an alarm was blaring through the halls. I saw a silhouette of a woman with short hair running in heels. She seemed to be very worried about the situation at hand. She was muttering something under her breath (or were those her internal thoughts?) but it was hard to hear them over the sound of the alarm. She eventually made it into a room with a huge hole in the wall, showing the sky. She saw something escape.

"No!" someone screamed.

I woke up, gasping for air. What was that? I looked at the calendar I put on the wall; June 4th. The first matches were set to begin in three days. I already knew that there would be roughly a hundred or so people entering the tournament. I tried to think of what I'd do in the meantime. I decided to take a walk around the building, maybe even see the beach itself while I was at it. After I went down the elevator, I saw Ribbon Girl and Twintelle headed towards another area with a bunch of tables. I followed them and saw numerous people in line getting a bunch of various breakfast items.

"A breakfast buffet?" I asked softly.

"You didn't know they had that here?" Twintelle asked.

"Oh, give it a rest, Ella." Ribbon Girl said. "She's new here."

"A new fighter, huh?" She looked at my arms and then at my hair.

"I pilot an ARMS Mecha Suit."

The actress mused to herself. "Hmm... I never heard of such a thing before."

I pulled out an image of Ribbon Girl in her victory pose with a ribbon whirlwind surrounding her in midair. "Oh, and by the way, Ribbon Girl, can I get your autograph?"

"Sure thing!"

She pulled out a pink pen and signed her name on the photo. The three of us then got breakfast and sat down at a table. As Ribbon Girl and Twintelle spoke, I stayed mostly silent and tried to eat my food at a moderate pace.

"You're not very chatty, are you?" Ribbon Girl asked.

"Well, I never thought of what to say." I answered. "It's just that... you two are super famous. Why would you bother talking to me?"

"Girl, you don't give yourself enough credit." Twintelle said. "It doesn't matter where you come from, the color of your skin, if you're human or not, rich or poor, first or second generation fighter, none of it matters when we enter the ring. We're all equals here."

I smiled. "I suppose you got a point."

"It isn't easy being a rookie. I know; we were all rookies at one point in time." Ribbon Girl commented.

Twintelle looked at me as she sipped on some coffee. "So, you got a name?"

"Fighter alias or real name?"

"Your fighter alias. What's your nom-de-guerre?"

I had no idea what a nom-de-guerre was but I answered with, "Mechanica."

The two superstars smiled. "Mechanica. I like that." Twintelle responded.

"It has a nice ring to it." Ribbon Girl commented.

"Thanks." I turned to the actress. "And what is a nom-de-guerre?"

"It literally translates to 'name of war'. It's an alias taken on for the purposes of combat. For instance, Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen, or Richthofen for short, was called the Red Baron when he entered combat. He was a German pilot in World War One."

"Alright. I heard Ribbon Girl call you Ella. What was that about?"

"It's just my nickname. Ever since my ARMS mutation, rarely anyone calls me by my full real name, although some refer to me by my nickname."

"Your full name... It's Isabella Stefani, isn't it?"

Twintelle nodded and smiled warmly. "It feels nice to hear my old name."

"I thought you liked the name Twintelle." I took a bite of scrambled eggs.

"I do, but sometimes..." She looked away sadly. "I feel nostalgic. I feel everyone's forgotten my previous works before I became even more fabulous than I am now."

I looked at her sincerely. "I haven't."

"Glad to see someone still remembers."

Ribbon Girl took a bite of cereal. "Your mutation wasn't even too long ago, was it?"

"Nearly two and a half years ago. January 13th, 3048."

She swallowed her cereal. "Wow. That long?"

"When was yours?" I asked, looking at the singer.

"Close to a year ago. August 12th, 3049."

I noticed Kid Cobra taking his tray of food to a lone booth facing the wall. From this angle, it was impossible to see him. He ate in solitude and silence.

"He looks lonely." I remarked.

Ribbon Girl nodded. "Yeah, that's Kid Cobra for ya."

"One would think that, being the popular internet sensation he is, that he would be a social butterfly." Twintelle commented.

"Does he always do this?" I asked.

"Uh-huh."

 _I wonder if he's okay._ I thought to myself. I told myself I would speak to him later. Since Ribbon Girl recommended that I get sponsors, I decided to try and find some sponsors. Luckily, while I was out exploring the city, I found an advertisement from an automobile company called Tesla. The poster read,

 _Hey ARMS Fighters!_

 _Need a sponsor but are having difficultly finding one? Well, you're in luck.  
_

 _ARMS Fighters Wanted_

 _Call or email us_

 _Walk ins are also welcome_

I took a picture of the ad and decided to pay them a visit after lunch. I got into my suit, flew around the city and found the building. After waiting for a long time, I went into the room. There were three different men, each of them wearing suits with three different colored ties; a blue bow-tie, a red bow-tie and a black and green neck tie. They looked at me strangely.

"So, who or what are you?" the blue one asked.

"She looks like a robot." the red one remarked.

"I am not a robot." I answered, kinda annoyed by their response. "This is just a high-tech robotic ARMS mecha suit."

The red one blinked. "Well... We've never seen an ARMS Mecha Suit before."

"Have you already tried out for the ARMS Grand Prix?" the black and green tie guy asked.

"I have."

"How many enemies did you defeat?"

"66."

The blue tied guy mused to himself. "Hmm... That's higher than most." He turned to the neck-tie guy. "What do you think, boss?"

"Well... With a score of 66, you have to admit that is impressive. How old are you?"

"Fifteen. Do you think I'm too young?"

"No. Technically Helix is only two years old."

"But he has a structure and default height of a full-grown man." the blue one added.

The three men huddled together. I tried to figure out what they were saying, but the only thing I heard was the red tie guy saying, "This is a bad idea! Mechanica won't be accepted by her audience!"

I pretended not to hear, to not care, but the truth was, I heard and cared about what they said. They assumed I heard nothing, so I tried to hide my sorrow with a neutral look on my face. The three men nodded in unison as they eventually came to an agreement.

"Alright, we'll sponsor you. On one condition. You must first win a match in the ARMS Tournament. You win, we sponsor you. If you lose, well, then it wouldn't matter since you'd be eliminated."

"Fair enough. Thank for your time good gentlemen."

"Oh dang, we forgot to introduce ourselves. I'm the head of Tesla Company, Mr. Eisenhower and these are my right-hand men, Mr. Williams and Mr. Johnson." He mentioned to the red and blue ones.

"Pleasure to meet you." Mr. Johnson said.

"Thanks again."

I then left the building. _Oi vey, this is not going to be easy._ I thought. I had no idea who I was up against. Would my first opponent be a rookie, like Misango? Or someone more experienced, like Spring Man? I didn't know, nor did I have any way of knowing. All matches, and the stages where the matches were to occur, were chosen randomly. I also needed practice, but how was I supposed to train? I did some training with some robot look-a-likes of some fighters. It was very difficult, if not impossible to tell apart a robot from a real fighter. Fortunately, it helped me get some experience. Unfortunately, I was still scared.

A few hours passed, and I decided to head to the Snake Park in New York. The original was in his home of Toyko, Japan, but there was a replica here, as with many other replicated places. Unfortunately, the Snake Park was pretty far from Buster Beach Resort. Fortunately, I was able to hitch a ride in a taxi with some of Kid Cobra's mega fangirls. I could tell they were fans since they wore little snake hats on their heads along with all purple clothing. As we pulled up and exited the taxi, one of the girls started a conservation with me.

"So, have you ever seen him live?" one of them asked me as we walked.

"No, this'll be a new experience for me." I answered.

The second one smiled. "If you thought he looked impressive on screen, just wait til you see him in person."

We walked for about three blocks until we reached the outer edge of the park. We then walked ourselves to a fantastic viewing point; a raised platform with metal bars surrounding it, adjacent to half-pipe a skateboarding ramp. Down below, I saw other fans eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Snakeboard Champion. I looked to the arena and saw the snakeboards, which were these large circular platforms kinda like spinning tops. The girls set up some chairs.

"Wow, you guys got the best seats in the house!" I exclaimed.

"I know, right?" the third one asked.

"Help yourself to a drink if you like." the second one said to me while motioning to a blue cooler in her hands.

I took a bottle of water from the cooler they brought. "So, I hope you don't mind me asking this, but, why are you being so nice to me?"

"Just because we feel like doing something good." the first one answered. "Also, one of our friends got sick and couldn't come. Why do you ask?"

"It's just... You have no idea who I am and vice-versa. Why would show kindness to a stranger like me?"

"That may be true, but it is good to do sheer acts of benevolence." She looked at my eyes. "Something tells me that not many people were nice to you in your childhood."

I laughed darkly. "I still get bullied via a huge stack of hate mail."

The second one stared at me blankly. "Hate mail?"

"My worst enemies know where I live. They send me letters telling me I'm worthless and that I'll never succeed in any of my efforts."

"Wow. That's cruel."

"At this point, I don't even read them. I stopped reading them close to three months ago. I just have them sorted out, and all the hate mail gets burned."

The girls chuckled and then they clapped. "Way to go, girl! Don't let anyone bring you down!" the third one exclaimed.

The first one put her hand on my shoulder. "Well, since we don't know each other, let's fix that. I'm Sarah, Abby, and that's Caitlin." the first one said, introducing themselves to me.

"Marina." I looked around. "So, where are the ramps?"

"They're not set up yet. Since this stage doubles as snakeboarding grounds and a combat arena, they have to remove the ramps and other parts to avoid having fighters run into them. Also, it allows Kid Cobra to use the snakeboards to his advantage. Eventually, the entire grounds will materialize."

We sat down in our seats. A few minutes later, a vent ramp materialized from nowhere, along with a half-pipe. A few rails also formed.

 _Man, who knew the Snake Park was so complex?_ I thought.

Pretty soon, the man of the hour appeared before our eyes. Kid Cobra had scaly, snake-like purple arms, a cobra helmet/hood, a blue and grey shirt and purple baggy pants. He also wore white and black sneakers and black socks. As he entered the arena, I stood up and looked into his eyes to see if they hid any sorrow, only to see that they were heterochromatic (or multi-colored). His left eye was purple and his right eye was green. I had never noticed this before, despite him being a live streamer since he was thirteen. (Although I technically first saw him on the screen several months ago while I was recovering from my broken arm.)

Now, six years later, he was an ARMS Fighter by day, live streamer by night. Kid Cobra had been involved in the ARMS Grand Prix since the summer of 3049, was associated with the Naja Crew, a fast, powerful and clever fighter and yet mysterious and secretive all at the same time. As I saw him in person for the first time, I asked myself, _Who is he? Why is he so secretive? And how does he truly feel under that mask?  
_


	4. The Way of the Ninja

As Kid Cobra entered, he waved to the cameras and started his snakeboarding session. He jumped onto one of the snakeboards and jumped up, causing him and the snakeboard to go up onto the vert ramp. He then proceeded to slide up and down the vert ramp three times before doing a backflip and landing with a one hand handstand. The crowd cheered as I gasped in awe. Kid Cobra then followed up by spinning himself so that his feet were back on the snakeboard. He did that that two more times. As applause filled the arena, he then spun himself on the top of the vent ramp. He then jumped down with the snakeboard and glided across a rail. As he got off the rail, he extended his ARMS and flipped over the board while sticking the perfect landing.

For his next trick, Kid Cobra then got onto a half-pipe and did a 90 degree turn in midair before landing. Then a 170 degree turn. Then 360. He then spun around on the two snakeboards on the arena. He then got his snakeboard back onto the vert ramp and as he went up for the third time, the ramp was suddenly disintegrated! The crowd gasped. I think one mega fangirl screamed, "Kid Cobra!" in terror. And I couldn't blame her. It did look like a horrifying fate was in store for the snakeboarder.

But I had seen this move before, I knew what was to happen. A mini ramp then formed and he used it to get back onto the half-pipe. The crowd went wild as he backflipped into the air, landed on the board and made his midair victory pose before landing on the snakeboard. The show had ended. The crowd cheered one last time, this time louder than ever.

"And we're clear." I heard a cameraman say from afar.

Everyone in the crowd soon began to go their separate ways. "You wanna join us for ice cream?" Abby asked.

I looked below at Kid Cobra getting his phone from one of the crew members. "Maybe next time." I looked down below at Kid Cobra taking a glass bottle. "There's something I need to do here before I go."

"Alright." Sarah handed me a slip of paper. "So we can stay in touch, here's our numbers."

The trio of girls left. As I waited for the crowd to disperse, I added their numbers into my phone. Eventually, after most of the crowd left, I approached him. He relaxed on top of the snakeboard, drinking cream soda. I tried to think of what to say to him, but then he looked up at me.

"Can I help you with something?"

"Hey Kid Cobra. I gotta admit you were pretty impressive." I began. "Although, when I saw you earlier in the cafeteria at Buster Beach Resort, you seemed to be eating breakfast all by yourself. Are you okay?"

He set down the bottle. "I appreciate the concern, but I'm fine. I always eat alone."

I looked away sadly. "Oh, well, sorry for bothering you."

"Oh, it's alright. Very rarely do I get to talk with anyone other than a mega fan."

I raised my eyebrows. "How can you tell I'm not a mega-fan?"

"Cause you're not wearing a snake hat and you're wearing a yellow and blue jumpsuit."

I chuckled, "You have a good point. You're as smart as you are talented."

He turned his neck to me. "You're very honest, aren't you?"

"I guess you could say that."

He looked at me curiously. "What's your name, girl?"

"Fighter alias or real name?"

He looked at me as if I had grown two heads. "Fighter alias? You don't look like you have extendable ARMS."

"I have an ARMS Mecha Suit that I'm going to pilot."

I showed him the image. Because of that mask, I could not see his face, but I'm guessing that his jaw dropped.

"Wow. That's pretty impressive." I couldn't tell, but I thought that he was smiling under the mask. "Well then, tell me your fighter name."

"Mechanica."

"Well then, Mechanica. Pleasure to meet ya."

I yawned. "I guess I better rest up. First match is tomorrow. I'm so nervous!"

"I think you got this. Good luck!"

"Thank you! Good luck to you as well!"

I turned and started to walk away. "Oh, and one more thing." he chirped.

He handed me a photo and sped off. It was a photo of him, signed by him, with his phone number and the words, _Call or text me_ , written in cursive. He gave me his autograph and his phone number and I didn't even ask for them. Also, no one ever wrote in cursive anymore, except to sign their name. Why would he do this? I put his number into my contacts and went back to my room. I felt restless that night. I tossed and turned for who knows how long. Eventually, I fell asleep.

I don't remember many of my dreams from this night, but I had a few more flashbacks appear in my dreams. The first one was when I first met Karai, back in elementary school. I was five years old, and she was six. It was two weeks or so after elementary school had started that year. She moved from Kyoto to Tyoko for reasons unknown. When she entered the commons area, I was speaking to Veronica, my first, best and longest time friend since day one. I was showing Veronica one of my drones that I made, piloting it with a small remote control. It was a green dragonfly drone with its many legs on the ground.

"Wow, it's really cool!" my best friend commented.

Veronica was always a cute girl. She had long brown hair that tumbled past her shoulders (which was now half way between her waist and her knees) with green eyes to match. Back then, she wore a pink dress and red dancing shoes.

I smiled and pressed a button. "Look at this!"

The drone rose from the ground and flew upwards as I had commanded. I made it fly around in circles and made it fly to all the corners of the ceiling. Unfortunately, it started to malfunction. It's wing was slightly bent after going to upper left corner.

"Uh oh..." Veronica stated.

"That's not supposed to happen!" I exclaimed. The drone's wing got bent from hitting the wall and it crashed landed into someone. I heard a little girl scream loudly. I ran in the sound of the direction with a horrified expression on my face. I saw a girl with short black hair in a ponytail. She wore black pants with a black and blue sweater. She was extremely angry with me. "Oh no! Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!"

The girl held her hand to her cheek. "You better be sorry." She removed her hand, revealing a huge cut on her face. "Look what you did to my face! My beautiful face!"

"I really didn't mean to...!"

"You liar! You were trying to hurt me, so now I'll hurt you!"

That girl I unintentionally hurt was Karai. She raised her fist at me before a young girl (who would later become her best friend) stopped her.

"Karai, are you okay?" a young girl asked.

"No! This girl is crazy!" Karai answered. "Bringing her half-baked inventions to school to terrorize others! Just horrible!"

"My inventions are not half-baked!" I defended. "And I'm not crazy!"

"That's what all crazy people say!"

"Crazy?! I'll show you crazy!" I tried to approach her, but Veronica held me back. "Let me at em, let me at em!"

"Attention all students, please report to your homerooms for attendance, then make your way to the gym for our weekly assembly." a voice said over the speaker.

The warning bell rang, signaling we had five minutes. We went to our homerooms. I didn't remember much about the announcements or the assembly, but I did remember what happened during my third class. Third class was writing. We were all asked to write our names as they were spelled out in letters and not in symbol form. We wrote our names in alphabetical order by last name. Karai's last name was Domen, so she was towards the top on the list. Since my last name was Yamada, I was actually at the very bottom of the list. I took the pencil and wrote my last and first name on the parchment paper.

"Shouldn't you just change your name to Crazy Girl?"

And that's when I snapped. I growled and punched her right in the face. She kept dodging and trying to dodge, but eventually I got her in the face again.

"Yamada Marina! Domen Karai! What is the meaning of this?! You're going to the principal's office!"

She dragged us to Principal Mako's office. He was a very firm and harsh man. He hated troublemakers, and he absolutely hated me.

"Yamada, what happened?" he asked me.

And that's how I got my first of many detentions. Karai, somehow, got away Scott free, while I had to stay after school for an hour. Karai hated me with a burning fiery passion ever since that day. And from there, our rivalry would only continue to get worse.

I woke up to the sound of an alarm. 8:30am. I quickly ate breakfast and tried to prepare myself for the battle, but I had no more time left. The match began at 9:00. Was I really up for this? I heard a vibration on my ARMS Communicator. It was time. Ready or not, the match was about to begin.

* * *

It was time for my first match. Not only was it my first match, it was also the first match of the season to occur. My opponent? Ninjara. I'm not going to lie, I felt kinda scared. Ninjara had recently graduated from Rasen Ninjutsu University, was one of their top students, and he made it to round seven last season. No pressure. I felt like I was toast. I tried to remain calm and think of a plan. His ARMS were the Chakram, the Buff, and the Triblast, which were attributed with abilities of Stun, none and Explosion respectively. The first two ARMS were mediumweights while the last one was lightweight. Heavy ARMS were often slower but did more damage and could go through lighter ARMS.

As I walked to the teleporter, I tried to recall Ninjara's abilities. Whenever he guarded himself, he temporarily disappeared and teleported to another location. He could also teleport a short distance while dashing in the air. Oi vey. I said a quick prayer before stepping onto the portal and being teleported to Ninja College. Ninjara was already waiting at the top of the steps while I was at the bottom.

"In this corner, we have the student of stealth, the elusive ninja, Ninjara!" the announcer introduced.

The crowd cheered wildly. I looked around and saw a lot of Ninjara fans donning their hoods, and a very small percentage (like 10% or less), with Mechanica costumes.

"And in this corner, she's a new fighter who may not have the extendable ARMS Ninjara does, but just wait til you her in action! Give it up for Mechanica!"

The response after they said my name was nowhere near as loud as Ninjara. My heart sank. But what would I expect? I was a rookie. Hardly anyone knew me.

"What are your thoughts Biff?" an announcer asked.

Ninjara had already chosen his ARMS; a Chakram on the left and a Triblast on the right. "It's Mechanica versus "the student of stealth," Ninjara! Mechanica's signature ARM is the Whammer, a tool originally used for demolition! Can quickness and stealth overcome heavy-duty mechanical brawn?! We're about to find out!"

I wanted to try and slow him down, so I chose the Whammer on the left and Revolver on the right.

"Ready? Fight!"

I made the first move by dashing forward. Since there was a considerable distance from the bottom to the top of the stairs, I had to get closer to hit him. He attempted to knock me down with the Chakram, flying in curves, but I managed to block in time. Unfortunately, he grabbed me. He pulled me towards him, knocked me up into the air, disappeared for a split-second, and then knocked me down. Needless to say, ouch. I quickly got up and shot my Revolver forward- sending three electrically charged missiles in his direction. One of them got him in the face, but it wasn't enough to stun him for very long. He guarded himself and disappeared into thin air! But how was he doing it?

 _He's a ninja,_ I reminded myself. I tried to get some punches on him, but they missed most of the time. He was so fast, so elusive. Oh gods... I had to continue. There was no way I could quit now! I then punched him with the charged Whammer and then a charged Revolver. All of the bullets hit him, electrically stunning the elusive ninja. His ARMS were weighted down because they weren't even working. I then noticed that not only were his ARMS malfunctioning, but he also couldn't move. I then proceeded to grab him, but the effect had worn off and he stopped my grab by punching me with the Triblast. I shrugged it off and shot my Revolver at him, only for him to dodge. I felt the vibration, meaning the rush attack was ready for use.

I immediately activated my rush attack and started to glow with yellow energy surrounding me. I tried using my rush attack to land several punches on him, but he broke my rush with a Chakram attack right to my side. I felt slightly drained as the energy left me. He attempted to grab me, but I swiftly dashed to the side, avoiding his grasp. I looked at one of the boards, which displayed our health, rush triangles, and how much time we had left before the match ended. 68 seconds. Ninjara's got over three quarters of his health left, and I'm knocked down to almost half of my health.

Not good. I backed away from him, trying to think of a strategy, but I wasn't coming up with anything. He then started midair dashing and disappearing over and over until he reached me at the bottom of the stairs. I knocked him down with a charged Whammer and throw my Revolver towards him. He flinched, but he continued. He then knocked me down and then he used his rush attack on me, hitting me and sending me on an upward stairway of pain. Tribolts and Chakrams kept coming towards me and pretty soon, I had only a hundred or so health points left. This was not going well.

I looked around and saw a blue and green colored bomb hovering over the ground, being carried by a small drone. I decided to use it to stun Ninjara, but unfortunately, after I punched the bomb, it fell downward and Ninjara easily dodged it as he dashed up the stairs. 45 seconds. I was running out of time. He then grabbed me and slammed me down against the ground, knocking me out.

"K.O!" the announcer exclaimed.

He backflipped as he won the round. "Huhun."

"Ough..."

This fight was not turning out very well. Ninjara had won the first round. One more round and I was doomed. How could I possibly beat a near champion? I needed a plan if I was going to make it out of this ring as the victor. After a brief respite, the second round began. I replaced the Whammer with the Homie and kept my Revolver on the other. Ninjara kept his Chakram, but traded the Triblot for a Buff. The Buff was a glove Arm and could punch straight forward. I realized that Ninjara was going to corner me by using his Buff to launch straight at me, and Chakram to prevent an escape. Not gonna happen.

"Ready? Fight!"

Ninjara made the first moves by walking up the steps and attempting to punch me with the Buff. I blocked his incoming attack and once he tried to grab me, he got a Homie straight to the face. I then stunned the elusive ninja down with a charged Revolver shot, and knocked him down with a charged Homie, causing him to tumble down the stairs. He brushed it off and threw a charged Chakram at me. I hovered in midair for a few seconds to dodge his attack and then landed back on the ground. Then a health drink appeared, creating a healing circle. Ninjara immediately went towards it, since he was losing. I had to stop him!

"Oh no, you don't!" I exclaimed.

I entered the circle tried to throw him out of the ring, but he had activated his rush. He had thrown several punches towards me as I tried to dodge and get him out of there, but pretty soon, his rush attack, and the healing juice were gone. Now I had roughly half of my health left while he was close to full. There had to be a way to stop him! I shot him with a charged Revolver and then knocked him down with a charged Homie. I did this for another five seconds, but eventually Ninjara got himself out of my trap by attempting to grab me, only to find that I was too far away from him.

Our health bars were roughly equal, but there was still work to be done. Ninjara was not going to give up easily, and I had a hunch that he especially did not want to lose to a fifteen year old tinkerer. He stood at the middle of the stairway while was a few feet down below him. Up above him, there was a red and orange colored bomb. I had an idea. I deliberately punched past him to make the drone let go of the bomb and decided to punch at Ninjara. He dashed and dodged my every move. The bomb was supposed to hit him, but he dashed forward at the last second, avoiding the bomb's exploding radius. _Aw, drat!_ I thought that he would laugh at me or brag about dodging the bomb, but he stayed silent. I then got him with some Revolver missiles, making him flinch, and then following up with a charged Homie. I did this two more times before Ninjara grabbed me again. I felt a sudden, strong vibration- but it was an unfamiliar one. I shrugged it off and knocked him to the ground with an uncharged Homie.

"K.O!" the announcer declared.

"Yahoo!" I exclaimed.

"Jara."

I had won the round, but just barely. It was time for the third and final round. Ninjara went for double Buff (why I had no idea), while I went with my no-mercy combo; two Revolvers. I breathed in deeply, closed my eyes, and as I exhaled I said to myself in my head, _You've got this._

"Ready? Fight!"

The match started out with me making the first move. I shot charged Revolvers at him, electrically stunning him. I proceeded to knock him down with my right arm and he went a quarter of the way down the steps. I stunned him and threw him with my fists spinning rapidly in a circle, tossing him across the stage. I hadn't even been hit yet. Then I got thrown not once, not twice, but three times in a row, despite my best efforts to dodge or hit him. Then things started going haywire. I felt the bad vibration again. I was paralyzed for a moment, but I snapped out of it in time to stop Ninjara's grab. Then everything began to go wrong.

 _Oh no..._

The suit began to spark with blue lightning. The lights on the front of my suit began to flicker. After I punched Ninjara with some missiles, they burned out entirely. The electricity was going haywire! My suit malfunctioned and sometimes, wasn't even working at all. This made me open to Ninjara's charged attack, followed by another two grabs. This suit was designed to withstanding several punches, but a few grabs was somehow causing it to malfunction. A circuit was blown.

This was bad, really, really bad. I had roughly half of my health left while Ninjara had maybe 600 points left. I had to finish this match and soon before my suit left me completely defenseless. I did not want to become a sitting duck. I dodged his grabs and guarded myself from his Tribolts. When he tried to grab me, I dodged and then used my rush attack on him, knocking him down several health points. Then he grabbed me again.

"Stop grabbing me, you Grabby McGrabbington!" I yelled.

For the first time this whole fight, Ninjara dropped his serious face. He raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Huh?"

I heard the audience whispering and murmuring about him and his tactics. I took the chance to grab him and then knocked him down with all the electric missiles of the Revolvers.

"K.O!" the announcer declared.

"And the winner is Mechanica!" Biff announced.

Ninjara said nothing. I was about to say a victory quote and dance, but I felt my suit malfunction even further. The bad vibration and rumbling was now happening nonstop, so I scrambled out of there, leaving a confused, beaten Ninjara in the dust. I had to get to my room and fix the suit before things went even more haywire. I went back to the teleporter and as soon as I got back to the Teleportion Room, I jumped out of my suit with my remote in hand. Another circuit blew. Running out of time to fix things, I had no choice but to run.


	5. Help Unwanted

After the duel with Ninjara, I scrambled to get out of the stadium and back to my room before my malfunctioning suit stopped working entirely. Running with my remote in hand and the suit trailing behind me, I had made it from the gym to the lobby of the hotel.

"Excuse me, pardon me, coming through! Out of the way, big heavy suit!"

Everyone knew to get out of the way, except for one person who was being rude. Because of me and my suit rushing to get out of the arena and back to my room, people trying to get through the hallway were being completely blocked from passing.

"Hey, what's with the hold up?!" a random man asked.

I shoved him out of the way and shortly after, all hell broke lose. The suit completely malfunctioned. The small electric currents became big bolts and spread all over the suit. And then, Bam! The remaining circuits exploded. I tried to shield myself in case any metal or debris came flying towards me, but nothing happened. Then the suit fell over.

"Oh great," I grumbled. "Totally busted."

The nearby spectators walked around the busted mech suit. The man I knocked down glared at me.

"Your suit has no place in the ARMS Tournament, little girl."

He slapped me in the face and ran away quickly. "Hey, there's no need for that! I won against Ninjara!" He didn't listen, or perhaps he didn't care. I felt pain in my jaw, but luckily, none of my teeth were missing or lose. I sighed and slumped my back against the wall, sliding to the ground. "Great. My suit's busted. Now what? My room is so far away from where my suit crashed. Should I try to get my suit to the tools or my tools to the suit?"

"Probably the latter, considering how heavy that suit must be." a melodic feminine voice answered. "That literally weighs a ton, doesn't it?"

"500 kilograms, which converts to roughly 1102 pounds, so over a ton actually."

"Just as I thought."

I stood up and looked at the woman I was speaking to. She had short green hair covering her right eye, a purple and black mask, a black and green top with a green skull-lighting bolt symbol on it fixed with a black belt and a zipper, and a black skirt with a green trim (or was it actually a dress?), along with grey tights and black and green heeled boots with green spikes on them. I thought to myself, _Those shoes look extremely uncomfortable._ Then I blinked twice and noticed her arms. They were made of copper with coils rotating around them, symbolizing electromagnetic conduction. And there were golden spikes all around the shoulders. For accessories, she wore black triangle pendant earrings, a black collar with her skull logo on it, and black fingerless gloves with gems and the same skull logo on them in a black metal form.

"I have to admit, when I saw you battle against Ninjara, I thought you were done for, especially after your suit began to malfunction. I thought you were the equivalent of a sitting duck. Yet somehow, you managed. You might actually be a formidable opponent."

"Opponent?"

"You don't think someone like me wouldn't enter the tournament with arms like this, would you?"

"No, or yes. Er, ugh, are you trying to mess with me?" I fumbled.

"A little. And it's working."

An idea than came to me. "Ya know, with those ARMS of yours, you could possibly lift this broken suit to my room."

"Yes, I could. It wouldn't be easy, but I suppose it might be possible..."

"Will you?"

She sighed. "I suppose." She coiled her ARMS and extended them as if she was grabbing an opponent. She then tried to lift up the suit, groaning as she did so. "Oh, my gosh, this is heavy. How far is your room?"

"Tenth floor."

She grunted. "You're lucky I have a shred of respect for you, otherwise I wouldn't be doing this."

We went to the nearest elevator and went up to the tenth floor. Luckily for us, nobody else was using this elevator, nor did we have to stop for anyone. Once the door opened, we continued walking. We turned right and walked down the entire hallway. As we approached my room, I noticed that the woman was hovering in midair as she carried, or should I say dragged, my suit along the ground. I opened the door and the woman dragged in my suit.

"Where do you want this heavy contraption?" she asked.

"Right there, over nearby the second bed."

She let go of the suit. The woman panted for a few moments before turning to me. "Well, that certainly wasn't easy."

"I can't even begin to imagine how taxing that Herculean task was on your ARMS. Thank you, Mrs..." I began.

"Coyle. Dr. Coyle, actually." she finished.

I blinked thrice. "Dr. Coyle? _The_ Dr. Coyle, Director of ARMS Labs?!"

Dr. Coyle smirked. "That's me."

"Wow. This is crazy. Totally crazy! Okay, Mechanica, calm down." I examined at my suit. "Alright, now what exactly happened here?" I opened up the middle part of the suit. "Don't tell me the Armphetamine transmitter is busted..."

"Armphetamine? Isn't that chemical super expensive?"

"It is. You're asking me a rhetorical question. Everyone knows Armphetamine is super hard to make and therefore is crazy expensive."

She looked at me suspiciously. "Then how did you acquire it? Did you steal it?"

"No, but my friend borrowed it without telling the truth. You see, back home, I have a small circle of friends. One of them is a girl named Naila. Her father works as an ARM Labs Scientist in the Toyko Division. Naila asked her father to borrow Armphetamine, telling him that she needed it for a school project. But in reality..."

"She gave it to you so you could complete your suit."

I nodded, confirming her statement. "He was none the wiser." I then saw what was wrong. "Oh, here's the problem." I pulled out a spherical object. "Looks like the alternator is busted." I groaned as I set the busted alternator aside. "It keeps the power flowing throughout the entire suit. Without it, the suit begins to vibrate violently and malfunction. Eventually it ceases to function."

She looked at the model of the alternator. "These kinds of alternators are expensive..."

"They are. Fortunately, I came prepared."

I got out one of the five spare alternators I had. I disconnected the wires from the power source, loosened some bolts, and with a bit of tinkering and altering, the suit was repaired.

"Batta bing, batta boom! Good as new!"

I turned the suit back on and got it to stand up. I timed it for thirty seconds just to be sure it wouldn't spew out electricity. And it didn't. The suit just stood there like a statue the entire time. I clicked the stopwatch.

"Well done." Dr. Coyle commented. Suddenly her ARMS Communicator went off. "Ah, my first match. Who is the first to be destroyed?" She opened her communicator, smiled and mused to herself. "Never heard of him. He must be new. I best be on my guard, and I must be going. Farewell, Mechanica."

She backed out of my room, leaving me and my newly repaired suit alone.

"Now for the real question; How do I prevent this from happening again?"

* * *

After doing some work on my suit to prevent this catastrophe from occurring again, I decided to text the results to my circle of friends and my father. Then Naila decided to give me a videochat call. I accepted the call.

Naila Funai was a girl with long black hair, usually in a ponytail, with blue eyes and ghostly pale skin. She wore jeans and a blue tropical themed shirt. She also wore blue sunglasses on top of her head. "Hey girl, what's up?! Congrats on winning your first match, Mechanica!"

"You know?"

"Of course. I may be in the Caribbean Island of Cayman, but I made time to see my favorite rookie on the big screen. The TVs in this hotel are huge!"

"Nice. Your dad isn't in earshot, is he?"

She raised her eyebrows. "No. Why?"

I looked at her sadly. "I'm still paranoid that your father will one day discover that you didn't really use the Armphetamine in your school project and that you just gave it to me instead."

She smirked. "Not possible. He never saw the project, nor did he even know what it was. There's no way he could find out."

"Where is your father?"

"Right now he's at the spa with mom, getting massages."

"So nobody is here.

"That's correct. So you chose Mechanica as your ARMS name."

I smiled and chuckled. "Yeah. I thought it was a good idea."

"I do. Mechanica is perfect for you!"

I grinned. "Aw, thank you!"

"You're welcome. I gotta get going soon. My scuba diving session is in ten minutes! Good luck in the rest of the matches!"

"Thank you, have fun!"

She hung up. I got a text from Ribbon Girl saying, _My first match is tomorrow at 4pm. Tickets have sold out, but hopefully you can catch me on the big screen._

 _Thanks for the info. Do you know who your opponent is?_

 _No one I recognize._

I thought of how expensive those tickets would be. Then I remembered I still don't have a job. I needed to get one, but who would even hire me? I had to at least try to find a job. I got into some more comfortable clothing, a grey tank top, orange cargo pants and black tennis shoes, keeping my fingerless gloves. I told myself to find at least five job applications. The first one I would get would be an easy find. Right outside the Buster Beach Resort was Buster Beach with a wooden sign in the sand reading, _Help Wanted._ In small print the sign read underneath, _Cooks, Cashiers, and Lifeguards_

I went up to the snack stand and got two applications, one for being a cook and one for a cashier. I walked along, trying to figure out what they wanted on here. Unfortunately, I rammed right into something and tripped, landing face first into the sand.

"Ow! Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry..." I picked up the papers and looked in surprise at who, or what I knocked down. A small little robotic dog.

"You might want to watch where you're going, miss." a robotic voice advised me.

The K-9000 barked in agreement. I blinked and saw Byte and Barq. Two robots that patrol this beach. I got up and picked up my job applications.

"Sorry, I was being a bit foolish. It's just I've never applied for a job before, I don't know what they're asking from me and I'm worried they won't accept me."

"Really? And why wouldn't they?"

"Well, I'm only fifteen years old, and I'm a foreigner." I answered, rubbing my arm awkwardly.

"Far from home, are you? What brings you here?"

"I'm competing in the ARMS Tournament via a powered suit I created."

"Hmm. I would think that would be illegal, then again, me and Barq got in, even after they discovered our trick."

"Trick?"

He chuckled. "When we auditioned our way to become ARMS fighters, we entered with Barq on top of my head to make it seem like we were one robotic unit. This was because partnership was forbidden, but I didn't want to leave my best bud behind. So we did this, and everything was going very well at first, that is, until I had hit 70 opponents. During the seventh wave, we had been grabbed so many times and try as he might, poor Barq couldn't stay on. The judges were completely shocked as Barq kept hitting the opponents of the cell. We had made it to 99 opponents, but the last one, which was more powerful than the rest, finished us off. We're one of the few ARMS fighters to make it to 99 opponents. Despite our trickery, which I do actually feel kinda bad about doing, they let us in."

"Wow. Impressive."

"Indeed. Hey you!" He spotted a litterbug who didn't throw his napkin in the nearby trash bin. "Dispose of your trash properly!"

He ran off, chasing after the litterbug. I decided to continue getting applications. I got three others; one for an office clerk at the New York City Police Department, one for a waitress at The River Cafe (a very expensive restaurant) and one for a chef at a cheap sushi place called All Rolled Up. Once I got the job applications, I got some envelopes and stamps from Mark and filled them all out. Although one of the more interesting questions I saw on the All Rolled Up and Buster Beach applications was, _Are you participating in the ARMS Grand Prix?_

Of course, I answered all questions honestly and added in the fact that I used a mechanical suit and sent the applications through the mail or delivered them back in person. By the time I was done, I was exhausted. I collapsed on my bed and then Veronica called in. Unlike her younger self, Veronica Darby now wore jeans and a purple t-shirt with a saying in black words; _Do I look like a people person?_ along with a black jacket to complete the look. She wore and a purple and pink headband in her hair.

"Hey girl. You look exhausted. Was the first match that tiring?"

I panted. "No, I just finished all of my job applications."

"That would explain a lot. Congrats on your first win!"

"Thank you. It wasn't easy."

"It won't get any easier from there."

I chuckled dryly. "Don't remind me."

"You got a lot of competition."

"I've heard a lot of rookies have joined the party this year."

"Aside from you, there's Spring Man, Springtron, Lola Pop, Misango, and Dr. Coyle, among others."

"I mustn't underestimate anyone, either they be a veteran or a rookie."

"You are absolutely right."

I put my fingers to my chin, looking at her curiously. "You got any other advice for me?"

* * *

After we hung up, I opened up my laptop and saw my email inbox. I had two messages; one from the River Cafe management, one from the New York City Police Department and one from one of my other friends. Her name was Naomi Chinen. She was vacationing in the Bahamas. I opened the first e-mail and read them to myself in my head. It read,

 _Dear Ms. Yamada,_

 _We regret to inform you that we can not hire you based on your age. We believe that your lack of job experience, based on your age, would disrupt the harmonious pattern of our servers. We hope that you understand our reasoning and good luck in finding another occupation._

 _Best of luck, Sandra Williams_

"Oh, well that's just great."

I then opened up the next email, hoping for some good news.

 _Dear Ms. Marina Yamada,_

 _I regret to inform you that you can not work as a clerk at the New York City Police Department. There are two reasons we had to make the decision we made. You are a very young applicant foreigner, and therefore, we are unsure if you are familiar with the skill set required to be a clerk. Also, you are a foreigner and therefore, no way to determine if you are truly trustworthy. We apologize for the inconvenience.  
_

 _Sincerely, Sheriff Wilcox_

"So they're racist and underestimating me. Great. Fantastic. Talk about help unwanted..."

After sarcastically reminding myself of the situation, I then opened up the email from Naomi.

 _"Hey Marina! What's up? I saw your first battle against Ninjara! I almost thought you were a goner when your suit started to malfunction, but you pulled though! Good on ya! Congratulations on winning your first match! Good luck to you in the ARMS Tournament._

 _Your friend, Naomi_

 _P.S- Nice fighter nickname. It really suits you!"_

That last email reminded me that I was lucky I had people who believed in me. Now for the next thing, I had to find an outfit acceptable for an interview, because they would want to interview me for sure. Since I was a tomboy, I almost never wore dresses or skirts. I wondered if I had even bothered to pack a dress at all. Then I remembered I had one, but I had no idea if it was really acceptable for a job interview. It was an ankle length orange dress with sleeves to the elbow. I also didn't have many nice shoes except for a pair of sandals. I suppose it would have to do. What if I messed up?

 _Don't say that! You'll be fine!_ I told myself.

I decided to head down to a combat arena for some ARMS training. Along the way, I saw the peppermint lady speaking with Ribbon Girl in a nearby hallway. I looked closer at the peppermint lady; her arms were colored pink and orange, similar to candy canes. She wore yellow oversized overalls with various patterns, a blue athletic shirt with a lollipop like logo on it, a red clown nose, red oversized clown shoes, a blue headband and purple spherical earrings.

"So you want to use the money to start your own circus?" Ribbon Girl asked.

The clown nodded. "That's right."

"Congrats on winning your first match!"

"Thank you very much! I'd like to believe I've got this."

I wondered if I should try to sneak away before they noticed me eavesdropping, but that would be difficult since the suit was so loud when it moved. I tried to activate the jet pack to fly away, but that failed since they heard the sound of me accidentally hitting the wall. I then fell down.

The peppermint lady chuckled. "You know, you're not very stealthy."

"It's hard to be quiet with a loud suit." I retaliated.

"Oh hey, Mechanica!" Ribbon Girl greeted. "Have you met Lola Pop?"

"I've heard of her and seen her once before, but I didn't know the peppermint lady was her."

"Peppermint lady? Oh, the hair." She giggled. "I guess that does make sense. Congrats on winning your first match, Mechanica. I saw you live while stretching and prepping up for my first duel."

"Thank you. Fighting Ninjara was not easy. Between the fact that he made it to the seventh round last season, and the fact that my suit began to malfunction about two-thirds of the way through the match, I honestly feel like it might have been beginner's luck that saved my butt from being kicked."

"Perhaps that is not entirely true. It takes skill to defeat someone like him." Ribbon Girl commented.

"It takes more than skill to win in the ARMS Tournament. It takes experience." I turned to the clown. "So, how did your first match go?"

"I won. Poor guy had no training, so it was easy to finish him off." Lola Pop smiled. "You wanna join me and Ribbon Girl for a practice match?"

"Sure. Why not?"

* * *

Why did I agree to this? Was doing this a mistake?

"Keep up, Mechanica!" Ribbon Girl shouted.

"Easier said than done!" I shouted back.

The three of us did a practice match on Ribbon Girl's home turf; the Ribbon Ring. This stage was a huge square with blocks that would occasionally rise from the ground. The blocks rose up in the lower right corner, where I was hiding and trying to think of stragety. For the last two rounds, Ribbon Girl and Lola Pop ganged up on me and took me down before facing each other. Ribbon Girl got the first one, and Lola Pop got the second one. So far, I got none. I was reduced to half of my health while Ribbon Girl and Lola Pop were really busy fighting each other to pay attention to me. I saw a green block which held a health potion inside it. I dashed towards it and broke with the Whammer on my left arm. As I started gaining strength, the other blocks disappeared and the two girls noticed me guarding myself in the health circle.

Lola Pop tried to grab me, but she missed as I sidestepped. I fired my Homie on the other arm at Ribbon Girl, while Lola Pop tried to hit me with her Funchuck (on her right arm) and her Biffler, to no luck. Ribbon Girl had lower health than I, so I stunned her with the Whammer before taking her out with the Homie.

Lola Pop emerged as the winner. She took a bow. "Ladies and gentlemen!"

"Well fought, ladies." Ribbon Girl stated.

I slowly got up. "I feel horribly beaten. Is this what defeat feels like?"

"Not entirely. Real defeat feels a lot worse, although it's highly unlikely you'll beat every opponent you encounter." Ribbon Girl said.

"It's possible that none of us may even be fighting each other." Lola Pop reminded us. "But it still helps us get some experience in."

I blinked. "You're right. Do either of you know how many people entered the competition this year?"

"According to what I overheard one of the other contestants said, the Grand Prix started with 114 contenders. That's the highest record yet."

"Wow. That's quite a higher number compared to last season's 96."

We sat in silence for a minute or two. "So, I'm guessing Ninjara's probably going to back his bags and head out, isn't he?" I asked.

"Maybe, maybe not." Ribbon Girl answered. "After being eliminated, some fighters choose to stay behind to cheer on one of their friends and or to try and get the super coveted tickets for the Brass Duel."

"Oh yeah... The winner of the semi finals vs Max Brass always has high demand. Tickets sell out almost immediately after they go on sale. They go on sale for brief periods of time, then stop. And the last batch of tickets are sold right after semi-finals."

"Also, Ninjara is close friends with Min Min and Kid Cobra. He'll probably cheer for one or both of them to try and get to the top."

"Do you know when Kid Cobra's match is or who he's up against?" I asked.

Lola Pop shrugged. "Not sure. I wonder who Jeffery is up against..."

Ribbon Girl laughed. "You mean, is or will get destroyed by?" I looked at them, extremely confused. "You've never heard of Jeffery, aka The Cannon Fodder?" I nodded no. "He's one of the weakest, yet most persistent fighters in the ARMS League. He's participated in the Grand Prix for five years in a row, but he never makes it past round one. He doesn't have many special abilities and his arms are just borrowed from other fighters. He uses the Toaster, the Slapamander and the Triblast. No one really knows why he continues to put him through this continual suffering. Some people think that he was a really good fighter who got amnesia before he entered the tournament, and that if he comes back, he'll eventually recover his memories. Some think that he's retired and doesn't have anything better to do. Others think the ARMS League hired him to fail to give fighters a false sense of confidence only to be crushed later by a truly tough opponent. He's got beaten up by many fighters, including but not limited to, myself, Min Min, Spring Man, Ninjara, Master Mummy and Byte and Barq."

"Hmm... Why hasn't anyone asked him why he continues to fight?"

"All attempts to get answers have ended in failure. He won't speak to anyone about it."

"Also, nobody knows where he came from..."

"Seems strange..."

* * *

After some solo training and eating some dinner, I got back to my room and finally got around to messaging Kid Cobra. I texted him,

 _Hey Kid Cobra. Finally got around to texting you back so you can get my number. Have you heard the results of my first match?  
_

 _I heard about your match with Ninjara. Congratulations on winning your first match! I'm amazed at how you beat Ninjara!_

 _Thank you. I'm amazed I won that match as well. Especially when things started going haywire._

 _Really? What happened?_


	6. Duel in the DNA Lab

The next day, I looked at my ARMS Communicator. I saw who my next opponent was and when the next match was scheduled. I was up against Helix on June 15th. Man, that was a long time to wait. Then I remembered that 2nd round matches began on June 14th and that often times, several matches were occurring at the same time and/or on the same day. This wasn't always the case, but throughout the beginning matches to the midterms, that's often how it was. June 16th was the day of the interview. A lot coming towards me all at once. I felt rather overwhelmed.

 _Is it always like this?_ I thought to myself. _Do Ribbon Girl and Twintelle feel these emotions on a more intense scale?_

I was thinking about that when my phone beeped. I got a text message invite from Sarah, Abby and Caitlin to a cafe in Via Dolce for lunch. I accepted the invite and arrived at Kate's Cafe, right across from Biff's Bakery.

"Hey Marina." Sarah said as they cheerfully waved to me in unison.

I smiled and waved back. "Hey girls. What's up?"

"You really like jumpsuits and goggles, don't ya?" Sarah asked.

I looked at my attire. I still had my goggles over my head. "Yeah, I do. That isn't... bad, is it?"

"No, not at all." Abby answered.

Caitlin complemented my attire. "Looks good on ya, mate!"

"Sarah, party of four." a host said.

Sarah stood up and we did the same. We followed a host through the restaurant and got a table facing the window.

"Here you are. Your server will be with you shortly."

Sarah smiled and said, "Thank you."

He left us to our table. We sat down and opened our menus.

"Wow. This menu is huge!" I exclaimed.

"I know right? That's exactly why I like this place. It provides a good variety." Sarah added.

"Isn't this cafe also operated by ARMS Labs?" Caitlin asked.

Abby chuckled. "No, you're thinking of ARMS Cafe."

"Really?" Sarah shrugged. "I would think they would try to be more secretive."

"One would think."

We placed our drink and food orders and started up a conservation.

"So who are your second favorite ARMS Fighters?" Abby inquired. "We all know that our favorite is Kid Cobra. Other than Marina who may think otherwise."

"Mine's probably Lola Pop. There's just something about her that makes her so lovable!" Caitlin explained.

"Maybe it's her sweet personality." I joked. Sarah imitated a rim-shot by smacking her hands on her legs followed by a clap. They laughed briefly. "I know that was corny, but I couldn't resist."

"It was but it was a bit humorous." Abby giggled. "What about you Marina?"

"Well, my top favorite is Ribbon Girl. She's light on her feet and quick to the punch. I've never really thought too much about second best..."

 _Should I say myself? They don't even know I'm Mechanica. Should I tell them?_

"For me, that would be Twintelle. Her aura is very powerful." Sarah noted. "Also, she looks so glamorous! So poise under pressure, graceful under fire."

"Mine's Helix." Abby answered. "He's very evasive and unique fighter."

I then got an idea. "Really? I've never even seen him. Could you tell me more about him?"

Sarah raised an eyebrow. "You've never seen him?"

"I've heard mentions, but nothing else."

"Well, Helix is basically this green slime boy created by ARMS Labs." Abby began. "Chronologically speaking, he's two years old, but he has the default height and weight of a grown man, yet also has the curiosity and wonder of a young child. He's an odd case. His expanding and shrinking body allows him to maneuver quickly and dodge attacks while attacking at the same time, making him kinda unpredictable. He's been in the ring for two years and is rumored to be friends with Twintelle."

Sarah and Caitlin laughed. The former added, "I don't buy it. Twintelle would never be friends with a slime blob like him!"

"Anything else to add?" I asked. "Like the ARMS he uses?"

"He has three arms; the Blorb, the Ice Dragon, and the Guardian. They have the respective attributes of Blind, Ice and Electric."

"Hmm. Interesting..." I mumbled to myself before turning back the group. "Good to know."

* * *

Several days later, it was time to face Helix. It was time for the second round. It wasn't the first match of the second round (for which I was thankful), but it wasn't towards the bitter end either. I quickly got to the Teleporter Lobby and I was first to arrive to the arena. The slime man soon followed. The DNA Lab was an interesting arena. There were several test tubes with Helix like clones in them. I wondered how good they would be for temporarily taking cover while thinking of a strategy. I heard rumors that they were fragile, so I couldn't be so sure.

"In this corner, we have our favorite genetically created ARMS fighter. Well, only genetically created ARMS fighter... Give it up for the Man of Mystery, Helix!"

The crowd cheered as the announcer finished introducing Helix to the audience.

"And in this corner, we have a girl who's as destructive as she is darling! It's the Scrapyard Scrapper, Mechanica!"

The volume of the cheers seemed to be about the same. I breathed in and breathed out. I knew that I could do this.

"It's Helix versus "the scrapyard scrapper," Mechanica! If I put on her suit, do you think I'd have a chance in the Grand Prix? I actually have no idea how that thing is even legal… Anyway, here we go!" Biff annouced.

I hated that Biff questioned the legality of my suit, but I tried to ignore it. I choose a Revolver-Homie combo while Helix decided to go double Blorb. He must have really wanted to blind me. But what else was he planning?

"Ready? Fight!"

I waited for Helix to make the first move, to which he charged his left Blorb and shot towards my face. Since it was a heavy ARM, I dodged it effortlessly. This continued for a while, and it took me a few punches to hit him with the Revolver, taking about a hundred health points from him. I tried to hit him, but he dashed, which caused him to shrink and stoop low to the ground. He was briefly a green pile of goo on the floor before returning to his default height. Was my ARM-firing accuracy off or was it the way he moved? I shrugged it off and tried to fire at him, only to miss and have him hit me with a charged Blorb, throwing this blue, sticky sweet stuff (slime?) right onto my face. I couldn't see a thing. My face was completely coated with it.

 _So this is what Abby meant by evasive. He's really defensive!_

Unsure of what to do, I guarded myself. When the blue slime faded away, I noticed Helix trying to grab me. I stopped him with a Revolver, causing him to flinch. I then hit him with a charged one and knocked him down as he punched me with a Blorb. He tried to hit with the Blorb, only to crack one of the test tubes. I tried to punch him with the Revolver, but I ended up breaking one of the test tubes instead. Then an electric bomb came up and I knocked it down towards Helix. The bomb exploded and Helix was close to it, stunning him. I took the opportunity to grab him.

The Blorbs came close, but I hid behind a test tube. When Helix threw a punch towards me, he only cracked the tube. I dashed and electrocuted him with a charged Revolver. He was down to less than half his health and I hadn't even been hit once.

I was on a roll! I felt the rush vibration, but I decided to save my rush attack for later. For my next move, I charged my Homie and my Revolver, with all attacks hitting him at once. He tried to punch me, but I flew up for a few seconds to dodge his move. I dashed again to avoid his Blorbs once more, and once I landed I grabbed him, knocking him out with 62 seconds to spare. Wow, I finished him quickly.

"K.O!" the announcer declared. I noticed the white circle underneath my image suddenly changed to a gold one. "Perfect!"

"Yahoo!" I cheered.

Helix mumbled sadly to himself.

I wondered how the strange creature felt about losing to me. Did he even have feelings? I did not know, but I had to keep my head in the game. After about two to three minutes, the next round began. Helix swapped out his Blorbs for an Ice Dragon on his right hand and a Guardian on his left, while I switched my Homie to my left hand and the Revolver to the right hand.

"Ready? Fight!"

I made the first move, only for Helix to hit me with the energy beam of a charged ice dragon, freezing me for a few moments. I couldn't move, yet my arms weren't disabled. Then his Guardian crept up towards me as the ice broke and knocked me to the ground. I tried to dash away, but then he grabbed me. He threw me in a full circle, then raised his left leg and kicked me right across the stage. Ouch. I shook it off and continued to fight. As I punched him with my revolver and missed him a few times, I remembered how the blocks in the Ribbon Ring were good for hiding behind. Then I thought, _Hmm... Maybe I can use these pillars to my advantage._

I hid behind a pillar and waited for him to find me. I guarded myself to charge my Revolver and jumped out from behind, stunning him with the electric missiles as his ice dragon fired its beam towards me. Then I did the same thing again while also dodging his Guardian, hurting him even more. But Helix was persistent. He hit me with the Ice Dragon, freezing me and then he took the opportunity to grab me. He grabbed me twice. I got up and shook it off. I tried to damage Helix, but for about twenty seconds or so, he curved his body to the left or to the right, causing me to break a test tube. This continued until there was only one tube left. The last test tube ended up being destroyed as Helix threw me into it.

 _At least my suit isn't malfunctioning again..._ I thought to myself.

I got up and guarded myself in time to avoid being hit by both the Guardian and the Ice Dragon. He tried to use his rush attack against me. I swiftly broke his rush with a Homie. Then a health potion appeared and Helix went towards it. I entered the circle, grabbed him and threw him out. He had roughly half of his health while I was close to full. We continued the fight; I tried to punch Helix with the Revolver and the homie, but he stretched up and to the left to avoid my attack. I threw a few more punches at him, and after hitting him with a Homie, realized he was super low on health.

 _Time to finish this!_

I activated the rush attack and fired away at Helix. After three attacks, one from the Homie and two from the Revolver, the Man of Mystery was down for the count.

"K.O!"

I heard the Helix fans going, "Aw..."

"And the winner is Mechanica!"

"Va-va-voom!"

Once again, Helix mumbled sadly. I flew around happily and jumped up. "Mechanica!"

* * *

I can't say that Helix was stupidly easy, but after defeating Ninjara, it felt like a walk in the park. I left the arena on top of the world. I felt confident, which was good. I reminded myself not to become cocky and overly confident with myself. As I reentered the lobby about ten minutes after the match ended, I found Helix speaking to Twintelle. He spoke in this strange dialect. It was essentially gibberish. I had no idea what he was saying, yet the actress seemed catch his every word.

"So you may have been defeated again. I know defeat hurts, especially this early, but keep your head held high. It does not mean you are a failure." Twintelle told him. The strange slime creature made some noises. "Yes, I'm sure. Remember when you reached the sixth round during the 3rd season you partook in? That was your highest ranking ever. You can get there again and go further." Helix seemed to be asking her something. "I know so."

I looked at the situation strangely. "You can understand him?"

Twintelle nodded yes. "After knowing him for so long, you begin to understand Helix's strange dialect."

"So you are friends with him." I confirmed.

"Of course. Why wouldn't I be friends with him?"

"Well, a few days ago, one of my friends, who is actually a fan of yours, said and I quote, 'I don't buy it. Twintelle would never be friends with a slime blob like him!'" Helix looked at me angrily. "Her words, not mine."

He seemed to have calmed down. "Oh, the media never mentions it, but I'm actually close friends with this guy. Although when I first saw him and fought him in the DNA Lab, that wasn't the case. I used to hate him, but overtime, we went from friendly acquaintances to best friends."

"I suppose that makes sense."

Suddenly Twintelle's phone rang. She looked at it. "Oh, not again... It's the director." The actress sighed. "I guess I better face the music."

She walked away and accepted the call.

"Is the director mad at her?" I asked.

Helix shrugged. Even if he knew the answer, I wouldn't have been able to understand it anyway. Who was the director of Twintelle Productions? I couldn't remember his or her name. I was 90% sure it was a guy in charge of the studio. Either way, I had bigger fish to fry. The big interview was tomorrow. And I was so not ready.

* * *

I was in my room, searching on the web for possible questions they might ask me. I wrote down five questions that they were likely to ask me, and all of the answers I would say in my head. Then again, I was also surprised that the manager was asking for an interview since being a chef was just a normal average every-day career. I shrugged it off and read the list to myself.

The list read,

 _1\. Why did you choose this job?_

 _2\. What is your usual role in a team effort?_

 _3\. What is your biggest weakness?_

 _4\. Give me a difficult decision you made in the last year and explain why you made your choice._

 _5\. Where else have you applied to?_

I scanned over the list. I doubt he would ask me the first question, but I did have an answer to give if he did. Team effort? How could I answer that one? I haven't really worked in a team very much. Not since five years ago... Biggest weakness? I had two of them. Which one(s) should I mention? A difficult decision made in the last year. I guess I could say entering the ARMS Grand Prix, although would that really count since it was also my greatest desire? The fifth question would be easy to answer. I then realized that he could easily ask me more questions than that, so I wrote down another five.

The list now had,

 _6\. Describe a situation in which you lead a team._

 _7\. What are your strengths?_

 _8\. What would you do if (insert situation here) happened?_

 _9\. What are your hobbies?_

 _10\. What was your biggest setback?_

There was no way I could answer six. I've never really led a team at all. I knew my strengths well. I hoped they didn't ask the eighth question. Depending on the situation, I might not have an answer. I had my hobbies. As for the biggest setback, that would probably my arm breaking and not being able to finish my suit in time for the Winter Grand Prix of 3050.

I remembered my dream tonight. It involved a flashback, and a strange vision. If you can even call it that. The first dream was my first encounter with Karai after the accident, shortly before the Winter ARMS Tournament of 3050. I was with all of my friends, Veronica, Naila, Naomi, Azami, and Kumiko (commonly called Kumi for short).

Let me tell you about the rest of my friends that you haven't seen yet. Naomi was a tall girl with long light brown hair and brown eyes. She kept her hair loose and wore jeans, and a t-shirt featuring a really old band from the 21st century called Breaking Benjamin. (She was very interested in history, especially that of musical artists.) She wore black boots and a bracelet with a purple sparkly skull on her left wrist.

Azami was a girl with light blue eyes and short blue hair (yes, that was her natural hair color despite the lack of extendable ARMS- how it was possible was beyond my comprehension). She wore jeans and a blue shirt with bubbles encircling the waistline of the shirt and a green seahorse on the front of it. She wore blue sandals, showing off her sea green pedicure and her blue threaded and seashell charm anklet on her right ankle.

Kumiko, or Kumi, was a girl with blond hair in a long braid and pink eyes. She wore a pink Ribbon Girl t-shirt and rose pink yoga pants with light pink loafers. She wore a red ribbon on top of her head and a pink ribbon on her right arm.

It was about a week or so after I broke my right arm. The five of us were at Cherry Tree Mall. Veronica volunteered to carry my bags since I had only one arm to work with. We just left the jewelry shop and we were on our way to the food court to get lunch.

"You girls are too kind to do this." I said to them. "Especially you Veronica, for carrying all my bags."

She had her hands and arms full of bags. I could tell those bags were getting heavy for her, but she smiled and said, "It's no trouble."

"Besides, getting out and getting some fresh air will do you some good. Better than staying home and eating junk food to try and drown out misery." Naomi added.

Kumi looked ahead and saw someone coming towards us. "Oh no... Evil witch alert at 12 o'clock."

Azami groaned and sarcastically, "Oh great. Fan-fucking-tastic."

Karai looked at Azami, clearly annoyed by her word choice. "Is this any way to great an old friend, Azami?"

"Can it, ya bitch."

Azami had a bad habit of swearing a lot, especially when angry or annoyed. Remember that girl that helped Karai up from the ground on her first day in school? That was Azami. She was formerly Karai's best friend, but she left her and sided with us. Why? That's a long story. Anyway, Azami was not happy to see Karai or vice-versa. The bully looked at me and my arm in its sling.

"Oh, so the rumors are true. Poor little tinkerer broke her arm. What happened? Get your arm crushed under that stupid suit you're trying to build?"

I glared at her with fire in my eyes. "First all, my suit is not stupid. And second, I did not get injured while working on my suit."

"Is that so? Well, how will you finish it like this? You'll never finish it in time for the next grand prix." She laughed at me. I started growling at her.

"Uh, Marina..." Naila said. I ignored her.

"Aw, what'ca gonna do? With that broken arm, you can't even hurt me!"

She closed her eyes and continued to laugh. I stepped on her foot, causing her to yelp in pain. "Don't you dare remind me of my setback!"

"You have a lot of nerve, Marina. Or are you really that foolish?"

I slapped her in the face. "You're the one who's a fool, Karai."

"Why you little...!" She put her hand to jaw, groaning in agony and then she angrily walked away. My anger was then replaced with sadness. I looked at my broken arm, then at the ground in defeat.

"Marina, are you okay?" Naila asked.

I turned to face my friends. "What if she's right? I've been trying to make this suit for the last two months. It's nowhere near done, I'm missing several necessary parts and I still haven't gotten the Armphetamine for the suit yet. Now this stupid, useless, broken arm. What if it can't be done? I'm trying to do the impossible here."

Veronica put her hand to my face. "Don't listen to her. She wants to see you fail." She removed her hand and we walked onward. "Also, don't you remember that quote from Walt Disney?"

"'It's kinda fun to do the impossible.'" I giggled. "Yeah, you're right. Thanks girls. You're the best friends I could ever ask for."

The dream shifted. The scene was now a very different one. I found myself looking at two people in an elevator. One was a man in his 20's, and the other was a woman around his age. The man was dressing in black and grey clothing, resembling a viking. He had blue eyes and unevenly cut black hair to match his slightly tanned skin. The woman was dressed in a green ankle length dress with black heels. Her blond hair was thrown into a bun and her emerald necklace highlighted her green eyes. As the elevator went up, the two spoke to each other.

"Are you scared?" the woman asked.

He laughed obnoxiously. "Scared? I'm not scared." He chuckled. "I've beaten everyone so far, why would I be scared?"

She looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Are you sure?"

He sighed. "Yeah, I am scared. You know me. I'm always nervous before any match. It doesn't help that Max Brass has won this final duel for the last three years in a row. He almost always wins."

"Don't worry, Magni. You can beat him."

"Everything..." He paused. "it all relies on this one duel. If I lose..."

She put her hand on his left shoulder. "You won't."

"How do you know that?"

"Because your name means strength. And you've got plenty of it to spare."

He was crestfallen. He turned her away, looking through the glass of the elevator. The sun was setting, painting the sky with orange and yellow hues. "You know Magni isn't my real name." He put his hand on the glass. "Everyone knows that."

She grasped his other hand. "But you are Magni, with or without the mask." He turned to his lady. "You are strong. Don't forget that in this fight." She gave him a brief smooch on the lips.

Magni slowly smiled. "You are my strength, Mervina."

Was that an alias or was it her real name? I did not know. Three seconds later, the elevator arrived at the very top of the Brass Tower, where the Sky Arena was. Max Brass was already there, flexing his muscles and waiting for the match to begin. They exited the elevator, and then Magni entered the ring.

"In this corner, we have our undefeated champion for the last three years, 'the commish', Max Brass!"

"And in this corner, we have our favorite rookie of the year, 'the viking', it's Magni!"

The crowd cheered and roared. They were really excited for the match.

"The ARMS Grand Prix grand finale is here at last! Listen to that crowd- the fans are all fired up!" Biff began. "It's Magni vs 'the commish', Max Brass! The name Magni is from the Old Norse language and translates to strength. Magni is certainly not lacking any strength here, but does he have enough strength to beat the champion? We shall see- the grand finale is about to begin!"

The crowd was even more fired up; the awaited duel was about to begin. Then suddenly, I heard of slow music being played. The vision faded away. I tossed, turned, groaned and a few seconds later, I reluctantly opened my eyes.


	7. Basic Training

The alarm I set went off. What was that dream about? Or could I call it a vision? I had no time to think it over. The interview was at 9:30am. I got into my orange dress, my sandals and brushed my hair to make it straight. I hoped this would be acceptable attire. Even if I could access my wardrobe back at home, it wouldn't do me much good. I grabbed an energy bar, a bottle of water, a small purse to carry everything in, and left the building. Much to my surprise, I quickly got a taxi. Usually it took half an eternity. I stepped in, getting some bills to hand to the driver. He was an old man with shaggy hair and filthy clothes. His breath smelled terrible too.

"Take me to 3106 Old Privet Drive." I requested.

"That's on the outskirts of Brooklyn, pretty far and deserted. Are you sure?" he asked.

"Uh huh." I handed him $15.

I got a taxi ride to the place. I tried not to let my thoughts torment me, but I was so nervous. I had never done an interview before. I passed by several skyscrapers and all different kinds of businesses, from restaurants to shops, banks and everything else.

Suddenly the car stopped nearby a graveyard. "You got any more money?"

I looked up and saw All Rolled Up ahead in the distance. "It's fine. I think I can walk from here."

"So why are you even here anyway? Not many people ask for a ride to this place. Old Privet Drive hasn't had a successful business in years."

"I have a job interview at a place called All Rolled Up."

"Hmm... So you've never heard of the curse of Old Privet Drive?" I nodded negatively. "No business ever established on this land has ever succeeded being fully in operation for a complete year. No one has even tried to set up a business here in the last 150 years. Good luck, young lady. You're gonna need it."

The taxi drove off, leaving me in this near ghost town. That story seemed too crazy to be true. Complete hogwash. I dismissed it and walked into the place, breathing in to calm down myself. The floor space had a total 6000 square feet, with it being divided evenly for the work space and where the customers would be. The floor was blue to resemble the ocean. The walls were painted a sky blue. In the dining area, I saw various tables, some square, some rectangular, a few circled and even one triangle shaped towards the middle of the room. I also noticed four different white vertical banners, one on each wall, each with different Japanese symbols in various colors. The first had two symbols in blue font. The second had two in green front. The third had three in purple font. And the last one had three in black font. Each table had a tablet with it to place orders, pay and call for a server. I looked at the counter and saw a big laid out wooden board with a beach painting on it separating the counter from the kitchen.

Next to the board was an open wooden archway with purple beads covering it. I assumed that door led to the kitchen, although there was another entrance that couldn't be seen from this angle. I walked forward into the hallway. A wall separated the counter from the hallway. The hallway had darker blue walls and a few undersea plants and a few animals, resembling an underwater cave. In this hallway were the restrooms to my right, the other entrance to the kitchen on my left (marked with an _Employees Only_ sign), and straight ahead was the office of my future employer; James Dean Anderson. I walked up to the door and knocked on it thrice.

"Hello? Mr. Anderson?" I asked.

I waited a few moments, then I slowly creaked the door open. I looked around the room; the walls had the same color as the dining area. In the upper left corner, there was a large plant. It was some sort of cactus. Japan didn't even have cacti. Why was that even there? There was a desk with a name tag that read, _James D. Anderson_ and a computer, keyboard and a mug that said _World's Best Boss._

"Looking for moi?" a deep masculine voice asked.

"Yes, you wanted to interview me." I answered.

He examined me by looking down at my feet before taking his head back up. "So you're Marina Yamada, who also calls herself Mechanica in the ring?"

"That's me. I know what you're thinking; you probably think I'm crazy."

"I do, but who am I to judge? Now sit. I will ask you some questions."

I sat down in front of the desk while he sat behind his desk.

"So tell me, Ms. Yamada, why did you apply for this job?"

"Well, I am searching for a job so I can continue to pay the rent on my room while competing in the ARMS Tournament. It is an unfortunate occurrence that Yens are low in value compared to American dollars."

"So, you're from Japan. You must be very cooking at making sushi and cooking Japanese food."

"I can say that I'm good. I'm not a professional, but I know how to cook."

"Alright then. So where else have you applied to?"

"I have applied for four other positions."

"Any luck?"

I hesitated. "Not really, no."

"What is your usual role in a team effort?"

Oh dear. I was afraid he was going to ask that question. I breathed in and tried to answer honestly. "Well... I haven't really been involved in a team effort. I have been homeschooled for the last five years and got my diploma at the age of 15."

"Do you remember the last school project you did?"

"Oi vey... Hmmm..." That would have been in fourth grade, sometime before my tenth birthday. "I think it was a science project where me and three other students, none of which I really knew very well, had to pick a certain type of climate, show what looks like, tell the audience where it is located in the world, describe its flora and fauna, and how hard it would be to survive there under certain situations. I think it was trifold poster board, and I think we all did a good job. We all contributed equally and got good results."

"Alright. What would you say is your biggest weakness?"

"My biggest weakness?" I paused for a moment, trying to figure out how to phrase the answer. "I have two big weaknesses. The first one is a lack of self-confidence. Sometimes I'm worried I'm not up for the challenge, yet I dive in anyway. It doesn't help that several of my neighbors think I'm a lunatic. The second weakness is.. well... I have been told that... I have a really bad temper..."

"A bad temper? What is it that makes you very angry very quickly?"

"Being insulted, ridiculed and people trying to belittle my efforts. It's really hurtful and they don't seem to see the genius that I always thought of myself as."

"You think your a genius?"

"Considering that I built a functioning ARMS mecha suit to compete in the Grand Prix before reaching the age of adulthood, which is 20 in Japan, yes I do."

"I can understand why you say that. So what is your greatest strength?"

"My ambition. I am a very ambitious young woman, and went I want something done, I stick to it."

"Alright. You're hired! Your first shift begins on our opening day, June 20th. Training is June 17th-June 19th from 9am-2pm with a group lunch breaks, payed for by myself." He handed me a piece of paper. "Here is a menu. Try to memorize it before training begins if you can."

* * *

Once I got back to my hotel room, I decided to try and memorize the menu and see what I knew how to make.

 ** _Appeztizers_**

 _Gyoza- Japanese pan-fried dumplings stuffed with pork, cabbage and onion.  
_

 _Shumai- Dim Sum with pork, onions, mushrooms and cabbage in a steamed bun.  
_

 _Agedashi Tofu- Deep-fried tofu soaked in a sweet and savory sauce.  
_

 _Hiyayakko- Chilled tofu topped with katsuobushi, onions, grated ginger and soy sauce._

 _Yakitori- Grilled chicken skewer with onions, glazed with a ginger soy sauce.  
_

 _Tempura Shrimp and Vegetables- Breaded shrimp and vegetables deep-fried in coconut oil served with a tentsuyu dipping sauce._

 _Harumaki- Japanese spring rolls served with teriyaki dipping sauce._

I knew how to make some of these, but not all. I also realized that most of the chefs probably don't know either, hence reason for the training program. Also, some of the items were more expensive then I had previously thought. I then looked at the hot pot section. Hot pots are basically these small pots where the meat and vegetables come to your table and you cook them right in front of you. Delicious yet also briefly tantalizing on your nostrils. Donburi is basically a Japanese rice bowl consisting of fish, meat, vegetables and/or other ingredients simmered together and served over rice.

 **Hot Pot**

 _Vegetable_

 _Chicken_

 _Beef_

 _Pork_

 _Shrimp_

 _Combination_

 ** _Donburi  
_**

 _Teriyaki- Served with beef, pork, chicken, shrimp or tofu. Sauteed onions, carrots and broccoli in our house made pineapple teriyaki sauce with your choice of meat served over rice.  
_

 _Spring Garden- Napa cabbage with green onion, carrots, snow peas, water chestnuts, bamboo shots and celerey sauteed in ginger sauce served over rice. Add Tofu for $1.00. Add Beef, Pork, Chicken or Shrimp for $2.00.  
_

 _Oyako- Chicken, eggs, green onion, shiitake, and carrots sauteed in chicken broth served over rice._

 _Chirashi- A colorful dish consisting of shrimp, crab, pork, Sakura Denbu, unagi, bamboo shots, onions, kinome, pea pods and nori served with rice and stir fried noodles.  
_

 ** _Yakisoba_**

 _Yakisoba with pork and cabbage- Egg noodles with pork, carrots, celery, onions and napa cabbage.  
_

 _Yakisoba Chicken- Egg noodles with chicken, onions, carrots and celery._

 _Kata-yakisoba- Also called Sara Udon, this dish consists of egg noodles with fried cabbage, bean sprouts, white shallots, pork, squid, and kamaboko.  
_

 ** _Ramen_**

 _Shoyu- Beef soy broth, chasu pork, water chesnuts, bamboo shots, green onion and nori.  
_

 _Shiitake Shoyu- Mushroom soy broth, shiitake, enoki, bamboo shots, green onion and nori.  
_

 _Miso- Miso shiitake broth, chasu pork, baby corn, water chesnuts, soft boiled egg, green onion and nori.  
_

 ** _Sushi Rolls_**

I'm not going to tell you all of the sushi rolls on there. There's over 50 and it would take too long to describe them all. I will tell you that many of them looked delicious though.

 ** _Drinks and Desserts_**

 _Fountain Soda- Coke and Pepsi Products_

 _Teas;_

 _Green_

 _Black_

 _Jasmine_

 _Rose_

 _Lavender_

 _Ginger_

 _Ginseng_

 _Bubble Teas;_

 _Strawberry_

 _Cherry_

 _Coconut_

 _Pineapple  
_

 _Mixed berry_

 _Rose Milk_

 _Alcoholic beverages;_

 _Organic Agave Margarita_

 _Blushing Geisha_

 _Organic Agave Margarita_

 _Asian Pear Mojito_

 _Cabernet Wine_

 _Red Sangria_

 _White Sangria_

 _Honjozo-Sake_

 _Junmai-Shu Sake_

 _Ginjo-Sake_

 _Gekkeikan_ _Sake  
_

 _Desserts;_

 _Cherry Spring Rolls- Six warm, crispy bites of cherry filled pastry with chocolate drizzle and and cherry chocolate chip ice cream._

 _Ice Cream flavors;_

 _Vanilla_

 _Chocolate_

 _Strawberry_

 _Neapolitan_

 _Green Tea_

 _Tempura_

 _Cheesecake- Served with your choice of caramel, chocolate or strawberry drizzle._

 _Mount Fuji Cake- Designed to be shared with six people, this huge cake is made up of four layers of chocolate with fudge ganache in between each layer, and top is frosted in vanilla buttercream._

 _Mini Mount Fuji- A smaller version of the Mount Fuji cake designed for one person._

Now in terms of the drinks, the only thing we chefs actually had to make were the teas. Everything else came out the tap or from a bottle. That responsibility was up to the waiters.

After rereading the menu for an hour, my brain felt fried. I went to bed and passed out almost immediately.

* * *

After a dreamless sleep, I got up and got ready for training. Man that was a long list. I hadn't memorized even half of it. I tried to memorize what I could. I walked into the building and saw a group of people waiting in the dining area. The boys and girls were either chatting amongst themselves or playing with electronic devices. Some of them were late teenagers, some were early adults, and a few were in their early 20's.

"Sorry I'm late." I apologized. "Everyone's waiting on me..."

"You're actually early. It's only 8:50 in the morning." one of the girls in early adulthood responded.

"That doesn't sound early to me." another girl, in her 20's, responded.

A boy appearing to be about my age looked up from his tablet. "Oh, Marina's here."

I looked at him strangely. "How do you know my name?"

"Byrson has a very good memory." the woman in her 20's responded. "He's already memorized the names of all of the employees here."

"How many of us are here total?"

"There's ten employees. Four chefs, five waitresses, and one buser/cleaner." he answered.

"Attention, all employees!" a familiar voice shouted.

Everyone who was playing with an electronic device pocketed it and stood in line.

"Alright. It's 9am, and everyone should be here. Let's see, Austin, Bryson, Casey, Eli, Hannah, Marina, Noah, Stella, Tony... Wait, where's Andrea?"

"Right here, boss." a voice answered in a deadpan tone.

Andrea was not dressed like her co-workers. She was dressed in black dress pants with shoes to match, a white collar blouse with a white undershirt and white dress gloves. Her black hair was knotted into a large top bun. She had sky blue eyes and a pretty face without makeup. However, there was one feature that made her stood out a sore thumb even more; a large horizontal scar on the center of her forehead.

"I see you're already in uniform." Mr. Anderson noted. "Although, with your gloves and long sleeves are you sure you won't sweat to death working in the kitchen?"

"I'll be fine. Besides, I get cold easily, and if I get hot, I'll just drink some water and get right back to what I'm doing."

"Alright then. First order of business, knowing where your station is. Noah, report to my office and await further instruction." He then walked to the office. The boss turned to face us. "Austin, Andrea, Marina and Stella, get to the kitchen. The rest of you, wait here for further instructions."

The four of us went to the kitchen. We each found out stations quickly. Then again, it also helped that there were name cards at our stations. After getting our hairnets, or hair tied back such as in my case, we got to our stations.

"Alright chefs. Since we're running out of time to train, I have no choice but to cram it all in three days. You will be expected to be able to create everything on the menu over this three day training period." He pointed to a small area nearby the grills of each station. "At your station, there are four recipe books- one for each you. When you take your book, write your name in it to claim it as your own. Now then, you will be expected to create one third of the menu for each day. Ingredients can be found in the refrigerator, freezer or pantry. Depending on how long training takes, these cooking sessions may go into overtime. Now, some things already have some the prep work done, but when it comes to actually doing work ahead of time, you'll be responsible for it getting done before the restaurant opens each day.

"Wait for further instruction."

We were left to our own devices. Many of us examined our stations and read the directions in the recipe book.

"Alright, your first task. All of you will be getting some orders from the servers."

"Oh gods..." I grumbled.

Before I could finish reading three pages of the book, I got a ticket that read,

 _Gyoza  
_

 _Shumai  
_

 _Agedashi Tofu  
_

 _Hiyayakko_

 _Yakitori  
_

 _Tempura Shrimp and Vegetables  
_

 _Harumaki_

I assumed that my coworkers had identical tickets. So I was pan frying dumplings, folding up the ingredients of dim sum, trying to find chilled tofu...

"It's over here!" Stella said, pointing to the nearby fridge.

Frying up shrimp and vegetables in tempura batter, grilling skewers of chicken and onion and then I finished the chilled tofu by pouring the sauce and grating some ginger over it. And doing a lot of other stuff. It felt really fast-paced. Or was it just me? I didn't think about it too long; I had a job to do!

Time flew by, and pretty soon it time for our lunch break. In addition to the catered food, we were allowed to taste the chef's creations. After getting my plate of food, I sat at a table all by myself.

"You okay?" a masculine voice asked.

It was Bryson. I poked at my dumpling with my fork. "Yeah, I'm fine."

He sat across from me. "You look lonely."

I sighed. "Yeah, some of my co-workers are giving me strange looks so I assumed they didn't want me near them."

"That's probably because you're the youngest employee here." he responded. "You are how many years old... Fourteen?"

"Fifteen actually."

"Yeah, that would do it." He looked across the room, before awkwardly asking me, "So... I know it's not really any of my business, but... why are you looking for work at such a young age?"

"You promise not to call me a lunatic or tease me in any way?"

"I won't judge."

I breathed in and told him about how I entered the Grand Prix with my ARMS Mecha suit and my desire to prove to the world I didn't need extendable ARMS to win the tournament. He never once laughed at me, teased me, or said it was impossible.

"It seems like the odds are stacked against you, but I'm sure you can do it if you work hard enough and believe in yourself."

I looked at him all bug-eyed. "You really think so?"

"Yeah, I do."

I smiled. After finishing lunch, we got back to work. The next order involved us to properly set up a hot pot. It could be any of the hot pot options on the menu, as long as we did everything correctly. So I went for the combination, Austin and Stella both did pork, and Andrea went for shrimp. The hot pots themselves were not hard to set up. It was really a matter of preparing the ingredients, chopping up vegetables and meat, throwing it into a pot set on top of a mini burner. The hard part was carrying it without spilling it. The mini burners weren't the heaviest thing I had ever lifted, but they certainly weren't lightweight either. I managed to bring it to the server without a hitch.

 _Maybe this won't be so bad._ I thought.

Our third and final task to make all of the teas. It was a pretty easy task, albeit there were so many of them that had to be made all at once.

* * *

Damn, the first day was more tiring than I thought. By the time I got back to the Buster Beach resort, it was around dinnertime. I hoped there would be some good news to lighten up the end of the day, but there was none. I saw Lola Pop sitting on a lone cushion, looking at the ground in shame. Her hair was loose and not in her peppermint shaped bun. Ribbon Girl was there, her hand on Lola's shoulder. She wasn't crying, but her puffy red eyes caused me to believe that she was earlier.

I approached her cautiously. "Lola? What's wrong?"

"She got beaten in battle today." Ribbon Girl said. "One's first failure always stings the most. At least, that's how I see it."

"It's not only the fact that I lost the battle," she said in between sobs. "I was mocked afterwards."

"Who was your opponent?" I inquired.

"Dr. Coyle."

"Maybe she was trying to give constructive criticism. What were her exact words?"

"Well before the match, Biff said the following; 'It's Dr. Coyle versus "the sucker puncher," Lola Pop! Are you kidding me?! Not even this sweet clown could escape the doc's critical eye! "Her experience as a street performer has given her some unique, unpredictable moves. But let's be serious, here. She's a clown." That was pretty dismissive, Doc! I doubt you'll be laughing after this fight.' After the match she said, 'Clowns don't scare me.' What did she mean by that? Does she not take me seriously?"

I shrugged. Ribbon Girl said, "That was harsh. No wonder you're so down."

Biff, the ARMS commentator, saw the candy clown in her sorry state. "Hey, Lola. I know you were beaten but that doesn't mean you're a bad fighter. You just need some practice." I then noticed he had a rectangular basket held by a black cord around his neck. "Here, want some cookies? I didn't sell as many as I usually do and I'd hate to see them go to waste."

"Sure. Thanks Biff." She took a handful of them, gave one to us and bit into one shaped like Max Brass's logo. "Wow, these are surprisingly good."

"Thanks." Biff beamed with happiness. "You've never had one before?"

"Never have." Lola answered.

I took a bite of a Toaster shaped cookie. "You're right, these are good!"

Ribbon Girl nodded in agreement. "Don't be so down on yourself, Lola Pop."

"Thanks, Ribbon Girl. On the downside, my return flight isn't for a long time. Since I was eliminated early than I anticipated, I have a lot of time on my hands. What will I do in the meantime?"

Ribbon Girl closed her eyes, trying to think. "Good question."

"I'm sure you'll find something." I said. My stomach growled. "I'm heading to find some food. Anyone wanna join me?"

Ribbon Girl and Lola Pop joined me for dinner. The rest of the evening was uneventful, and did not remember my dreams from that night.

* * *

The next day we had to make all of the Donburi, Yakisobas and Ramen dishes in the morning. In the afternoon, we had to make all of the desserts. This had surprised me, because I thought the desserts would be made last. My mind was in a thousand places at once. I had to slightly heat sweetened condensed milk to make the Mount Fuji cake, chop up the vegetables for various noodle dishes, and cook the chicken for the Oyako Donburi. While cutting up some shiitake mushrooms, I smelled something burned.

"Do you smell something burning?" I asked. Then I realized... "Oh man, I left the sweetened condensed milk on the burner too long!"

I turned off the burner and poured the burned milk down the drain. Andrea glared at me as I did all this.

"Smooth move, Marina."

"Can it, Andrea. You think this is easy?!"

"Girls, knock it off!" Stella scolded while carrying a tray of rice bowls.

I sighed and started over.

* * *

While it was slightly more difficult, it was not as difficult as the last day.

"Oh... That would explain why we made the desserts yesterday." Austin said.

On the last day, we had to make every single sushi roll on the menu. There were exactly 89 different sushi rolls on the menu. Oh gods, that took all day. Me getting into petty arguments with Andrea didn't help anything.

"Are you sure got the right ingredients in there?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure that's supposed to be cooked?"

"Yes.

"Yes!" I exclaimed angrily. "Why do you doubt me?"

After that Andrea got out of my hair for the remainder of the day. And as expected, I got each and every sushi roll right on the first try and got to go home before any of the other chefs did. Unfortunately, I was not able to find a taxi that day. It took forever to get back to the ARMS Gym. On top of that, it started to rain. It was pouring buckets, and I had no umbrella. I was being soaked head to toe. My phone and other electronic devices were safe in the plastic bag, but the rest of me was dripping wet. I sighed as I continued forth. I looked around me, and saw the city. Rain fell so hard that drivers on the road were forced to slow down. I tried to collect my thoughts. I thought of my dad, my deceased mom, my friends from my home, and my new friends who were fans of Kid Cobra.

I asked myself in my mind, _Should I tell them? What if they know I'm Mechanica and they make fun of me? Do they already know?_

I slowed down and stopped, trying to calm my thoughts. I smiled and reassured myself. "Well, Marina, look on the bright side. You've got a job, you're still in the ARMS Tournament, and everything's in your favor. Everything will be fine."

I told myself that all the way to the gym. I wanted to believe I was right, but I might have been wrong.


	8. Taken By Storm

Who would have known that we would be expected to memorize at least a third of the menu, cook it (if you were a chef) or accurately describe it (if you were a waitress) and then do the same thing for the other thirds of the menu over a three day period? And we were timed on our performances. I'm sure everyone working at All Rolled Up was exhausted. Everyone except for Andrea that is. She looked like she could take on all of our jobs at once like it was nothing. And yet she was dressed in clothing that would make her sweat buckets. I felt a twinge of jealously, but it was quickly subdued by fatigue. Welcome to the workforce, Marina. I was exhausted and soaked to the bone from the sky pouring buckets down on me, but I had to speak with Ribbon Girl for advice on how to stay calm under pressure and tips on how to keep a job. Maybe I would find her in a practice match against Spring Man. As I entered the lobby of the arms gym, I heard fast-pacing footsteps in the distance and the rolling of wheels along the title floor.

There was also a small group of ARMS fighters in the lobby, many looking extremely worried. Among these fighters were Spring Man, Lola Pop, Byte and Barq, Twintelle, Helix and a few others I couldn't identify including a man with tanned skin, brown hair and peridot eyes with the same spiraled irises seen in other ARMS fighters. He had ARMS of woven fabric and a golden headband covering his forehead.

"Something bad has happened..." he said to himself.

"What happened? Is she ok?" the actress asked.

"What...?" I began to ask, before being interrupted by a loud scream.

"Out of the way!" Dr. Coyle snapped.

We all cleared a path. Ninjara commanded, "Move! We got an emergency here!"

The two fighters were rolling a stretcher with an unconscious fighter down the hall, dashing through the lobby and out the door at breaking speeds. For a moment, I saw Min Min, the ramen bomber, completely unconscious and brutally injured from her last fight. Her left eye was all black and swollen. She had multiple scrapes and bruises all over her body. Her right leg was cut, but it wasn't bleeding. But that wasn't even the most disturbing detail. Min Min's dragon Arm was still active, despite being unconscious. But how? My eyes weren't playing tricks on me, were they?

"Did I see what I think I saw?" I asked myself.

The sound of an ambulance driving off pierced the air as Spring Man answered, "A fighter who was beaten up with blue lightning and is still suffering from electric damage? Yes, I saw it too."

"There was blue lightning?" I asked, most baffled. "I was talking about her dragon Arm still being active!"

"Huh?!" many of the other spectators asked.

"You didn't notice?" Byte asked the blue-haired fighter. Barq responded. "Don't be mean, Barq."

The mechanical dog whimpered. Dr. Coyle reentered the building. "There goes another fighter's confidence and pride."

"How do you know that Min Min's pride is crushed?" Byte inquired.

Dr. Coyle laughed. "The last person who fought her was decimated in more ways than one. Then again, Indra's first opponent was a rookie with hardly any experience under her belt. Albeit it looks like Min Min suffered more physical damage than the first one to fall. Who knew that the ramen bomber would become another one of Indra's victims?"

I scratched the right side of my head in confusion. "Indra?"

"Good grief, have you been living under a rock?" Springman asked.

"Indra, the 'storm goddess'? Doesn't ring a bell?" Lola Pop asked. I nodded. "She's one of the many rookies to join this season. So far, she's beaten every opponent, even in practice duels. She's one of the fastest, most insane, most dangerous, and one of the most ruthless fighters in the tournament."

Spring Man added, "She also seems evil."

"But she isn't." Byte responded. "Innocent til proven guilty, remember?"

He sighed. "I don't understand how the madwoman has a fanbase."

"Probably for the same reasons I have one. People have respect for her strength, intelligence and power, and/or the audience finds her commentary to be amusing." Dr. Coyle answered. "I must admit, she does know how to roast someone..."

"Poor Min Min. I hope she recovers soon." I said. "By the way, have any of you seen Ribbon Girl? I've been meaning to talk to her."

Spring Man laughed. "Good luck getting an appointment with her. She's trying to get a complete run on her 1 vs 100 record."

"Oh. Great." I sarcastically stated. "Just great."

* * *

After learning that Ribbon was trying to break her record on 1 vs 100 from Spring Man, I went back to my room and watched Min Min's match against Indra. The camera showed Min Min waiting in her home turf, The Ramen Bowl, for her opponent to arrive. Eventually, the 'storm goddess' showed her face in the ring. She looked like she was in her late teens or early 20's and was slightly taller than Ribbon Girl. Indra smirked, her waist-length black hair being blown around by the wind. Not a hair was out of place. Her face was perfect in every way; her eyelashes big and beautiful, her face blemish-free, no bags under her sky blue eyes, and all without any makeup. I felt a twinge of jealously.

She wore a long royal blue silted maxi dress that exposed her legs. Circling the waistline of the dress was a cyan ribbon that flowed down the back of her dress after being tied up in a bow. She wore black heels with a blue lightning bolt on the heel of the shoe. For accessories, she wore golden lightning bolt shaped earrings, a golden cuff bracelet with a blue lightning bolt charm and sapphire jewels and a golden tiara with various colored jewels adorned her head. Out of the corner of my eye, I also noticed a black hair bow next to her bracelet.

Her ARMS were colored blue and resembled a bunch of small miniature electrical wires all clumped together.

"In this corner, we have a woman with a quick temper and an even quicker attack. Prepare to be electrified, it's the 'storm goddess', Indra!"

She smiled brightly as the crowd cheered for her. I noticed that her fans wore replicas of her golden tiara or crown and royal blue t-shirts with her symbol on them. However, from that angle, it was hard to tell what the symbol was.

"And in this corner, she may be thought of as weak because of her noodle Arms, but she's stronger than she looks. She's ramen royalty, so give it up for our ramen bomber, Min Min!"

The crowd cheered after Min Min's name was announced. Min Min did not looked scared or intimated in the least. She still held her determined, neutral look as she looked at her opponent.

Indra threw some practice punches while waiting for the match to begin. She was ready to fight! Biff commented, "It's Min Min vs the 'storm goddess', Indra! Indra's always been all high and mighty, portraying herself as a goddess and queen of the sky. If you ask me, she's got her head in the clouds. Bring her down to earth and give her a good beating, Min Min!"

Min Min chose the Dragon for her left arm and the Megawatt for her right. Indra choose a golden whip-like arm for her right arm and a blue hammer arm for her left.

"Ready? Fight!"

Min Min immediately charged up her left arm, turning it into a dragon, then proceeded to fire away at Indra. Indra however, dodged her moves by jumping into the air. She jumped three times in a row, and then she hovered in the air for a brief moment. She began to glow with a blue energy surrounding her, no wait, it was small little lightning bolts. She landed on the ground, guarding against Min Min's attacks. About 22 seconds into the fight, a rush potion appeared in the ring. Min Min dashed towards it while Indra continued to fire at the Chinese Kick-boxer. Min Min's rush was fully charged.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? You call yourself ramen royalty, but do you really think you've got what it takes to win?" she asked.

Min Min was then knocked down by the hammer arm, taking away her dragon arm. As she got up she asked, "What do you mean by that?"

"You may think you're at the top, but you're really not."

"You're blowing hot air!" she retorted.

"Really? During the first Grand Prix you were in, you lost during the first match. Your arms are weaker than limp noodles!"

Min Min growled and grabbed the so-called goddess. She dragged Indra towards her, kicked her rapidly a few times while jumping in the air and then kicked her away, activating her dragon arm. She activated her rush attack, but it was stopped immediately by the electric whip arm. She continued to fire at Indra and stunned her by disabling her ARMS for a brief time. She tried to throw another punch towards her, but she was hit with Indra's whip arm. She guarded herself against Indra. But her shield aura was green instead of the usual blue. Indra then threw a few punches at her and then decided to use her rush attack. The electric-powered ARMS quickly broke through the shield and Min Min suffered over 100 points of damage.

Min Min had lost about half of her health points, while Indra still had about 800 or so. Indra guarded herself, charging her punches and then she hit Min Min with them, doing over 200 damage. Then Indra started to charge her punches manually, and I saw a blue glow surround her arms. She punched Min with both of her arms, the left and then the right, and they did even more damage. The audience, especially those who were fans of Min Min, gasped upon seeing her even more hit. Min was very low on health now. She got up and was grabbed by Indra. Indra's grab consisted of dragging her opponent towards her, doing 100 damage, smacking them for three seconds as the lightning went over to her opponent, throwing them into the air, with the lightning adding damage by 25 as Min Min gradually fell down. 25 at the top of the throw, 50 towards the middle, 75 a few seconds before crashing, and 100 as she fell, doing a total of 200 damage.

She was down for this round as most of the audience exclaimed in shock and disapproval. A few screamed and cheered for Indra.

"K.O!"

"Just give up!" Indra taunted.

Min Min moaned sadly.

Pretty soon, the second round began. This time, Indra had the hammers on both of her ARMS. What was she trying to do here? Meanwhile, Min Min swapped out her Megawatt for her Ramram and replaced her Dragon with the Megawatt.

"Ready? Fight!"

Min Min charged up her dragon arm, then Indra made the first move. She punched towards Min Min and a half second later, both punches from the left arm (which were charged) collided with each other, but Indra had the heavier arms and damaged Min Min. The same thing happened again, but this time they both hit each other, knocking each other down with electricity and fire. They got up and Min Min tried to punch her opponent with the Ramram but she dashed downward into the bowl, avoiding the attack in the nick of time.

A health potion appeared at the bottom of the bowl. Min Min went towards the circle, only to be grabbed and thrown out by Indra. Indra entered the circle and Min Min tried to stop her, but to no avail. Indra soon got back to full health and Min Min had less than three quarters of her health. 67 seconds left. Even if Min Min could avoid being hit, she would still lose because Indra had more health than her. Min Min dashed repetitively, trying to figure out a plan to defeat her opponent while avoiding her electric ARMS advances. Indra tried to use the electric bomb to stun Min Min, but she swiftly dodged the attack. 45 seconds left.

"I don't see why they call you Min Min. You should just be called Bin Bin."

Min Min growled like a wolf. "You've messed with the wrong fighter!"

Indra guarded as Min Min relentlessly punched her. "I'm not messing with you. I'm just telling you the truth; you should just give up."

As the 'storm goddess' shielded herself, I noticed that Indra's symbol was an X made of lighting bolts.

 _Most befitting._ I thought.

She broke through her defenses, disabling her arms. Min Min growled and grabbed her, activating her dragon Arm. As soon as Indra got up, Min Min tried to use her rush attack to stop her, but Indra only took minimal damage from her guard. 29 seconds left. I thought Min Min would be scared, but she was angry. Or perhaps she was using her anger to mask her fear. Min Min pressed on, as hopeless as it seemed, continuing to stand and fight.

Then out of nowhere, Indra got extremely angry. "Never trifle with a goddess!"

She used her rush attack against Min Min, and it was all over. The charged electric hammers, combined with the strange blue lightning power, quickly took her down. By the time Indra's rush power was gone, Min Min had been knocked down. She fell down and laid on her side, helpless and unconscious. Indra smirked.

"K.O!" the announcer said.

Min Min said nothing as she was defeated. Her dragon Arm was inactive, and so was she. She was comatose and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a small bit of blue lightning still shocking her.

"And the winner is Indra!" Biff announced.

"Yes! Yes! Yesssss!" she exclaimed.

Indra did the first of her two victory poses, which involved sitting on an imaginary throne and putting on the golden tiara she wore during her match. She leaned back and commanded, "Bow before me!"

The video ended with Indra disappearing, twirling her tiara in her hand as she left.

Damn, this woman was cocky. And powerful. I immediately began to dislike her.

* * *

The next match was against Master Mummy. In Skillshot. On June 23rd, at 7:30pm. The third and sixth rounds were always some kind of sports related match. They started doing those about 15 years ago to add some variety. The sport was always different for the competitor for the sixth round, meaning that whatever sport done third round wouldn't be done sixth round. However, I had very little experience with Skillshot. After dinner, I decided it would be best to not go in blind and actually try to get some experience in. I had been stunned by a Sparky and knocked down as my opponent got a few hundred points or so.

"Come on, Mechanica! Shake it off!"

I was in a practice match against Ribbon Girl, which wasn't going very well. She had 1000 points while I had 450. I charged my Revolvers and managed to get some more targets in. I repeated this until the match was over. After a few matches, we went to the Teleporter Lobby.

"T...Thanks for helping me prepare for my skillshot match, Ribbon Girl." I said meekly.

She smiled. "No problem. Skillshot isn't exactly a walk in the park."

"You're not wrong."

She stopped in her tracks and looked at me sincerely. "Hey Mechanica, can I ask you something?"

I nodded. "Of course. Anything. Ask away!"

"If I had to face Indra in the ring, do you think I could defeat her?"

"Yeah, totally. You made it to the finals last time. You were very close to defeating Max Brass last season! You've gone up against a variety of opponents. In fact, maybe Indra's scared of you and you don't even know it."

She chuckled. "Thanks for the vote of confidence."

After that we went our separate ways. Tomorrow was June 20th, my first day on the job. I tried to fall asleep. Trying to fall asleep took forever. I don't remember how I fell into slumber. One moment, I'm tossing and turning. The next thing I know, I find myself in a dark room. I couldn't see what was happening, but I heard everything.

"We shouldn't be doing this." a masculine voice said.

"So?" a feminine voice inquired in response. "Dr. C specifically left me in charge of this project."

"They said not to use the solution. Yet we are trying the solution again."

"It does not matter. What they won't know won't hurt them."

An alarm was heard throughout the unknown area.

 _Oh no... Something bad has happened. Really really bad. What's happening? Are they responsible for this? Is this my fault?  
_

The dream shifted to a moonlit night back in the cemetery not too far from my home. I saw myself close to my suit, next to the tombstone where my dearly departed mother laid in the ground. The wind blew a soft breeze, sending a chill down my neck. Something seemed wrong, but what? The currents of wind became stronger and cherry blossom petals danced in the wind like a mini tornado, and when they disappeared, a familiar face in the form of a pink specter stood there.

"Mom?"

She smiled. "Hello Marina. My, you have grown so much over the years!"

I looked at her, tears threatening to fall. "Mother... is that you? Is it... really you?"

"I know I have been gone so long, and that you have seen me only in your mind and in visions that can never come true, but that is not the case this time.

"Oh, mother! I have missed you so much."

I ran to her and tried to throw my arms around her... only to realize that since she was a ghost, I couldn't feel her. I tripped on a rock and fell face-first onto her grave.

"Marina, are you okay?" she asked me.

"I'll be fine." I chuckled as I got up.

Brushing the dirt off my face, I turned to her misty-eyed. She wrapped her arms around me and wiped away my tears. She then backed away. "My daughter, as great as it is to see you, I bring bad news. I have come here to warn you about what is to come."

"A warning? What would this be about?"

"There is a great evil lurking within the city. You will face a Jorogumo in disguise. Some will be caught in her web, but you must be the one to break it. Don't let her evil trickery fool you."

"Trickery? What trickery?"

Cherry blossom petals surrounded her. Her form began to flicker. "I can not stay here much longer. My time here is fading..." She threw her arms around me one last time. "I love you, my daughter. Good luck and please, be careful."

"No, wait. Mom! MOM!"

I woke up, gasping for breath. My mother... she was there... if only for a brief time. Now more than ever, I missed her. But what did she mean about... I then looked at the clock. I had ten minutes to get to All Rolled Up.

"Oh crap, I'm going to be late! I gotta move!"

* * *

I had managed to arrive to work in the nick of time, but my mind was in a hundred places at once. The store itself actually opened at 11am, but all employees had to be there one hour before opening time to get everything ready. We prepared the chilled tofu and set the nearly-finished products in the fridge.

My mother's words rang in my head from time to time, giving me of the sense of impending doom.

 _'You will face a Jorogumo in disguise.'_

I knew what a Jorogumo was. In Japanese folklore, a Jorogumo is a type of Yokai, or demon, that shifts from a spider to the form of a beautiful woman. But what did that have to do with...?

"Come on, Marina! Don't just stand there! You got three orders of rose milk bubble tea!" Andrea reminded me, snapping me out of my thoughts.

I had to get my head back in the game. It also didn't help that it was lunch rush hour. I tried to shove those thoughts to the back of my head. I poured the tea from the pot into the teacups, handed them to Bryson, one of the many waiters, as he handed me another ticket. He sped off as I looked at the order. The ticket read, _Gyoza, Shumai, Oyako Donburi and Miso Ramen._

I got to work immediately. My hands folded the potstickers and dim sim rapidly and without a mess. I dropped the dumplings into the pan and started to pan-fry them. Next I got to work on the donburi and ramen. As I chopped up the vegetables, I found myself cutting them rapidly. And somehow, I accidentally cut myself.

"Ow! What the...?" Blood began to drip from my fingers and nearly spilled onto the food. I quickly pulled my hand away and ran to the nearest sink. "Oh man!"

I sighed, washing away the blood and trying to wrap a bandage around the fingers that were accidentally cut. Andrea quickly got on my nerves.

"Nice going, Marina." she sarcastically commented while carrying trays of sushi rolls to the servers.

I clinched my teeth and left fist, trying to refrain from yelling at her. Unfortunately, yelling at her wouldn't help anything. But why was I so tempted to do just that?

 _Because she's being rude like she was the days before today._

And Andrea being her rude, obnoxious self was only one half of my problems. The other half was something none of my follow employees (except for Bryson) at All Rolled Up knew; my fears and doubts as I continued climbing to glory in the ARMS Grand Prix.


	9. Ready, Aim, Fire!

It was time for the Skillshot round against Master Mummy. I had already practiced numerous times against multiple opponents and I knew what to do. As I entered the arena, I found myself in an usual area. The room was about the size of a basketball court. On both sides of the court, there were ledges were each opponent stood. In between these ledges was a tan colored floor with grey slits in them, where the targets would appear. I had just 60 seconds to get as many points as I could. One shot, pass or fail.

 _Here's hoping that training pays off._ I thought.

Biff was present and commenting the match, as usual. "Let's switch it up and play some Skillshot! You play by smashing targets as they fly by. The more targets you destroy in a row, the more points you can score. Your opponent will be smashing targets too, so watch out for incoming punches!"

I noticed that our scores could be found on both sides, mine in orange and his in green. They just had a bunch of zeros at the moment, but it was obvious that it would quickly change. I went with my double Revolver combo to smash several targets while Master Mummy went with the Retorcher and the Phoenix on his right and left hands respectively.

"Ready! Fight!"

The match started off pretty well for me. First I hit the two targets in front of me, while the Grim Creeper hit only one. A new set of targets appeared close together. I charged up my right ARM by guarding, punched the four targets while the mummy grabbed me after getting one target. The score was 105 to 40. So far, so good. There was a brief pause before the targets came up again. A level up. I followed up with a charged punch, blasting five targets in a row, swiftly dashing to avoid the charged Retorcher, while Master Mummy hit two in a row, and then one separately. The electric bomb was brought down and Master Mummy tried to use it to stun me as he hit a three small targets in separate punches, but I swiftly flew upward with the jetpack, dodging the attack.

As he fired his next shot, hitting four targets in a row, the charged up Phoenix hit me, hurting me with fire damage. But we didn't have health bars or rush triangles. In fact, rumor has it that if a rush attack was used here (or in V-Ball) that the match would be forfeit and the opponent would win automatically. I had no idea if it was true, but I decided not to test it. After he hit me with the Phoenix, he got another three targets.

I grabbed him. "Ga-ga-ga-ga, king!"

He groaned and got up as the four targets smashed in a row disappeared.

30 seconds in. Another level up. I struck several targets in a row, getting 470 points in the process. Nice! By now, my points were at 690. I thought I had an unbeatable lead, but I reminded myself that the match wasn't over. I noticed a blue and green bomb hovering in the air by a drone. I knocked it towards him, and it exploded two seconds later. The Grim Creeper was stunned again. I waited for all the targets to align, and shot all ten of them down. He got 470 points from his next attack, but it did him no good. At least, that's what I thought, but I looked at the score again. Master Mummy now had 655 points. He was gaining on me!

22 seconds left. _Keep going!_

I guarded myself to charge my punches, flew into the air, stunned him while smashing six targets in the process. Master Mummy tried to get the few remaining targets as they moved, but he was too slow and missed all of them. As the next wave of targets came by, Master Mummy got one, but my charged Revolvers I punched four in a row and stunned him.

The clock started ticking down as less than 10 seconds remained. The letters turned from white to red. I punched the last few targets in a row, gaining 310. By that point, Master Mummy knew it was all over and stopped trying, but for some reason, I continued to hit him anyway.

The alarm went off as the clock reached zero. The final score was 1415 to 665. I won by a landslide.

"Owah!" I exclaimed.

Master Mummy grumbled.

I flew around in my mecha suit and imitated the sound of a machine. "Pew pew!"

* * *

After the match was over, I returned to the lobby of the gym. Unlike the aftermath of other matches, there was hardly anyone here. I saw someone with their hands on a newspaper (who knew they still printed those?) and a familiar feminine voice gasped.

"This can't be right. Something is wrong." Dr. Coyle mumbled to herself.

She put the newspaper down as I walked up to her. "Dr. Coyle? Is everything okay?"

The rad scientist sighed. "Have you heard the recent news? The grave of Eric Lockheart has been robbed."

I gasped. "A grave robbery! Who would do such a thing?"

"I don't know. What's really disturbing is the person who was stolen from."

"Who is Eric Lockhart?"

"He was a fighter in the ARMS Grand Prix. It was a very long time ago. You probably wouldn't recognize him even if I told you his combat alias."

"How long ago was it?"

"20 years ago." Suddenly, Dr. Coyle's phone played a dark, sinister yet classic piece of music. Toccata and Fugue in D minor. She answered her phone, in which a large robot clone of Springman was shown in a graveyard. "Ah, Springtron. What's the status report on the damage?"

"I've scanned the area, and it seems that the damage was done a few weeks ago, probably sometime before the tryouts for this tournament began."

I commented flatly, "He looks like a carbon copy of Spring Man."

Coyle chuckled. "It may seem like he's a carbon copy, but Springtron is more powerful and better than the original." She looked back at her phone. "Any indication as to who did it?"

"Negative. No DNA samples, not even a single strand of hair. Whoever did this is certainly no sloucher."

She groaned. "Just what I was afraid of."

I noticed a few decimated robots that looked similar to Byte in the background. "Is it just me, or do I see a bunch of deactivated robots?"

"There's a lot of deactivated robots here. All thirteen have been destroyed." Springtron answered. "I've had no luck. Should I try and dig up his coffin?"

Dr. Coyle looked at him in terror. "No, that'll create more trouble!" She calmed herself by breathing. "I'll head over there myself. Maybe I can convince the undertaker to let me examine the remains of the casket."

"I'll be waiting at the entrance."

He hung up. "Well, this won't be easy." She got up and stretched her arms. "But who ever said it would be?"

She left without saying a word, and swiftly walked out the door.

As she left, I wondered, _Who was Eric Lockhart?_

* * *

Later that evening, I saw a few other fighters were viewing an arm wrestling match between Master Mummy and Max Brass. A number of different people saw the two ARMS fighters standing with their right arm on the table, trying to slam the other one down. Among the audience was Spring Man, Ribbon Girl, Ninjara, Min Min, Kid Cobra Twintelle, the fighter with the golden headband, and even Dr. Coyle. Biff and two other fighters I didn't know where there too.

"What in the world?..." I began.

"After his defeat, Master Mummy challenged the commish to an arm-wrestling match." Spring Man answered my unfinished question.

"They've been locked in this test of strength for the last minutes." Dr. Coyle added. She looked at her stopwatch. "Strike that, eleven minutes."

Master Mummy held on the metal railing nearby as Max Brass held on to the table. What started out as a friendly competition turned into an all out grudge match. I noticed Twintelle's hair hands holding what appeared to be a silver tray with a circular covering.

"What's with the tray?"

"We made bets on who would win. The winning side divides the pot evenly between the spectators." Kid Cobra answered.

"Many of us voted for Master Mummy." said the man with arms of fabric.

Dr. Coyle scoffed. "Those who didn't vote for Max Brass are underestimating his strength."

We all noticed that the table had been bent by Max Brass's sheer brute force. "We're going to need a new table..." Biff said.

"Don't you guys think this is getting out of hand?" Min Min asked.

"Thanks, Captain Obvious." Spring Man sarcastically commented.

She glared at him, waving her arms at the situation. "I meant that someone should intervene."

"Why should we intervene?" Ribbon Girl asked.

"It looks like the table is going to..." she began. Suddenly the table broke in half and collapsed, causing both fighters to fall onto the ground. "collapse..."

Master Mummy was distracted for a brief moment, allowing Max Brass to force his arm down. I looked at the time on Coyle's stopwatch. _12:55_. It took nearly thirteen minutes, but Max Brass had won.

The champion smirked. "I win."

A chorus of disappointed "Aw..."s was heard from multiple people.

"You guys lost the bet. Now fork over the tray to divide the cash between the winners." Dr. Coyle ordered.

Spring Man sighed as Twintelle handed a silver tray with a sphere covering to her and she distributed the cash to Ribbon Girl, Ninjara, Min Min, and finally herself.

Master Mummy said a bunch of foreign language grumbles translated by some sort of object. **"I can't believe I lost. Twice in one day... This is just embarrassing!"**

"It could be worse." I mentioned. "You could have a broken arm."

"Is it even possible for those with the ARMS gene to break a bone in their arms?" the gold headbanded fighter asked getting up from the couch.

"I don't think so." Kid Cobra answered. "I've had the extendable ARMS since I was born. There are several instances in my life when I feel like my arm bones should have been broken, but they didn't break. Or maybe I'm just lucky." He chuckled.

"You're lucky then." I looked at the mask that covered his face. "Having a broken arm is more painful than you could imagine."

"You broke your arm?" Spring Man inquired.

"What happened?" Ninjara asked.

"I don't wanna talk about it. It's embarrassing and in retrospect, I feel like I could have prevented it."

"The fact that you are reluctant to speak only makes us more curious." Dr. Coyle spoke. "So how did you break your arm?"

"You're not gonna let this go are you?" Dr. Coyle nodded side to side. I sighed. "Fine. If you really must know, I'll tell you."

December 28th, 3049. A few days ago, I had obtained my high school diploma via online school. To celebrate the holidays, my success in finishing high school and to give myself a break from working on my suit, me and my friends decided to do a variety of different activates. One of them was skiing on Mt. Fuji. That was Naila's idea. So at 3:30pm, dressed in our warmest clothes and with helmets on our heads to prevent head injuries, the six of us took our ski gear to the top of the mountain.

"This is going to be so sweet!" Naila exclaimed.

Kumi's teeth chattered. "Brr... It's so cold here... Why did I agree to this?"

Kumiko, or Kumi for short, had never been skiing before, so she was feeling kinda nervous when Naila choose this as our activity. I on the other hand, felt like I was on top of the world.

"Congrats again on getting your high school diploma, Marina." Veronica said, patting me on the back.

"Thanks." I said, my cheeks turning red from the compliment. "I never thought I'd get it this early."

"You're a true genius, Marina." Azami added. "If Karai can't see it, that's her own damn fault."

Kumi looked down the mountain. It was a steep slope, especially for someone who never went skiing before. "So we race down there?"

"Yep, that's the plan!" Naomi answered.

"Last one there is a rotten egg!" I exclaimed.

We all took our positions. With our snowboards and ski poles, we readied ourselves for descent down the mountain.

"Ladies, prepare to descend!" Naila exclaimed. We all lined up at the starting line. Adrenaline started to kick in our bodies. "On your mark. Get set. Go!" We took off, with Kumi screaming her head off.

"Relax, Kumi, you've got this!" Naomi cheered.

I was in third place, with Naomi and Veronica in front of me. I stroked my skis to the left to avoid the nearby trees. While skiing wasn't my top favorite activity, I did enjoy the feeling of the wind rushing past your face as you raced down the mountain. After swerving to avoid other skiers, I found myself in the lead. I was winning! There was a fork in the road, telling me to go right or left. I then moved to the right to take what I thought was a shortcut, but I was horribly mistaken. It lead to a cliff and I tried to stop myself, but I looked too far ahead and my feet hit a rock, causing me to go airborne. I screamed as I fell down the cliff.

"Marina!" I heard all of my friends screamed.

As I fell downward, I shielded my eyes with my arm, fearing that I was going to die. However, when I landed on the ground, I felt several bones in my arms snap. Not only did my right arm break, it was also a comminuted fracture, meaning that the bone had been broken into several pieces. In other words, it was immensely painful. After I felt my bones snap, I screamed bloody murder. To be honest, I was surprised that my blood curdling scream didn't cause an avalanche.

"MARINA!" Veronica screamed.

The others arrived at the bottom of the mountain. First Veronica, next was Naila, then Azami, followed by Naomi and finally Kumi.

Kumi glared at Naila and pointed at her. "I told you that this was a bad idea!"

"Shut up! Ahh! Somebody call for an ambulance!" I ordered. "AUGH!"

Azami whipped out her cellphone and dialed an emergency number. It felt like it took forever for the ambulance to get here. Or maybe it just felt that way because of the unbearable agony I felt once my arm had broke. Luckily, the ambulance workers allowed all of my friends to ride in the ambulance as they whisked me to the nearest hospital. If you don't count my groans of agony, the ride was mostly silent. None of us spoke a word until we got to the hospital. Veronica was trying to hold back tears, but she wasn't doing a very good job. She sobbed silently. Azami and Naomi were also saddened by my injury, but not to the extent that Veronica was. Kumi glared at Naila the entire time. Naila in turn, looked sad and guilty and stared at the ground, hanging her head in shame. She thought this was her fault, but in reality, only I was to blame.

After we got to the hospital and my arm had been put in it's cast, my friends were allowed to see me.

"Are you okay?" Naila asked.

I looked at them somberly. "The results just confirmed what I already knew; My arm is totally broken."

The others cringed. Veronica commented, "Ouch."

"Yeah, ouch." I groaned. "This sucks. How am I going to finish the suit like this?"

Kumi berated Naila yet again. She cowered as Kumi glared at her. "Nice going, Naila! Marina won't be able to enter the Winter Grand Prix and it's all your fault!"

"No, Kumi." I began.

"Huh?"

"It's not her fault." Kumi looked at me as I continued. "I'm the only one to blame. I took a wrong turn, not realizing it was a dead end and a one way ticket to pain."

Kumi hung her head in shame. "Great, now I feel guilty."

"Don't worry. At least you don't have any broken bones." I said to her.

"So what now?" Azami asked.

"Has my father been notified?"

"Not yet." Veronica answered.

"Then we better tell him."

The road to recovery was long and painful. To pour salt on my wounds, I got teased a lot, especially by Karai.

"You were teased?" Kid Cobra inquired.

"More than you could imagine." I answered.

"Who's Karai?" Ribbon Girl asked.

"Karai Domen is a bully. She's teased me ever since my years in primary school. Even after I stopped attending public school and went towards online education, anytime she saw me, she mocked me and tried to belittle my efforts. And when I started to create my mecha suit, she turned many of my neighbors and acquaintances against me." I smirked. "But she won't be able to tease me much longer. Pretty soon, she'll be eating her own words!"

"First things first, you gotta get there." Dr. Coyle said. "Then you actually have to defeat him."

"Max Brass has won for the last... how many years?" Spring Man asked.

"Twenty years. Before that, his record was three years."

"Wow." I said.

"Yeah, wow." She cleared her throat. "Regardless of who makes it to the finals, they have to remember not to get cocky and celebrate too early. It ain't over til it's over. Yet all of us have the desire to face him."

"But even then, who, if any of us, can actually defeat him?" I asked.

Dr. Coyle smiled. "You took the words right out of my mouth."

* * *

I found myself in several strange dreams. The first dream Dr. Coyle was levitating in air a few inches from the ground, glaring at four different ARMS Labs scientists. If looks could kill, they would have been murdered instantly. There was a huge hole in the wall someone who appeared to be knocked out and a bunch of damage to the lab facility. I looked closer and then realized that the unconscious man was dead. What happened to him?

"What happened?!" Dr. Coyle asked. There was no answer for ten seconds. "Well?!"

"Uh... Hey, Dr. C. D... did you get new arms?" a man asked, attempting to distract her.

"Answer the question!"

"Uh, you say something." the first one said.

"No, you say something!" the second one remarked.

The third one pointed to a female scientist who looked highly ashamed of herself. "It was your idea!"

That said scientist said, "Look, Dr. Coyle. There is a simple explanation for this."

"It was Aisha's idea." the second one said.

Dr. Coyle turned to Aisha. "You went behind my back and did the exact opposite thing you were supposed to do! How could you?!"

"Dr. Coyle. We kept you informed of what we thought of doing, but you never responded."

Dr. Coyle's glare was deadly. If looks could kill...

The scene faded to black and shifted to a different dream.

The second dream involved Magni first receiving the ARMS he used. He had the hammer on his right hand and the golden whip on another. He stood next to Mervina and examined his extendable ARMS and his new weapons. Today Mervina wore a dark blue ankle length dress with blue slippers and her blond hair was loose, tumbling past her shoulders, only a few inches from her waist. She was not wearing her emerald necklace, but instead opted a blue threaded charm bracelet with a blue heart and various symbols of the ARMS League.

"The Thunderbolt and Mjolnir. Two electric ARMS. Most befitting for the son of Thor, especially the last one." the familiar feminine voice said.

He looked at her, perplexed. "You're really going to call me that?"

Mervina smiled. "It's a befitting title."

He briefly laughed. "Have you forgotten that they have already given me a title? They used it during my battle against Hephaestus."

She mused to herself. "Well then, what do they call you?"

"'The viking.'" he answered.

"It is most appropriate." She smiled, stroking her fingers against his arms. "You are devilishly handsome viking."

He smirked. "Why, thank you."

The third and last dream involved my last encounter with Karai. It was March 21st, the first day of spring, a few weeks after my arm healed. Naila had just acquired the Armphetamine. Not wanting to risk it being destroyed or lost in transmission, she decided to deliver it to me in person. We agreed to meet up at Cherry Tree Mall. The two of us were at food court at 8pm. It was completely deserted and the mall in general wasn't very crowded at this hour, so we thought no one would see us here.

Naila handed me a small, yet slightly heavy box. "Here you go. One large vial of Armphetamine. It was not easy to get. I had to lie to my dad, telling him I was going to use it for a science project."

I looked at her with remorse. "You didn't tell him about the ARMS Mecha Suit I'm trying to create?"

"I feared he might insult or belittle you, so I didn't dare to mention it. Good luck in finishing your suit."

I set the box on an empty table and hugged her. "Thank you, Naila. I owe you big time."

After hugging her, she wiped her hand across her forehead in a playful manner. "Don't sweat it."

"Well, well, well, what have we here? It seems the Maniac Mechanic has finally recovered." her voice spoke.

Or so we thought. We turned to see Karai Domen standing there. Her hair was in a ponytail, held by a black scrunchy, and she wore a black headband with a flame design. She wore black jeans with a flame design on her right leg. She wore a red t-shirt reading in black letters, _Sarcastic comments free of charge_ paired a leather jacket and black heeled ankle boots. My least favorite person in the world walked closer to us.

Naila frowned. Clinching my fist, I asked, "Karai, what are you doing here?"

"I should be asking you the same thing." she responded. "Isn't possessing Armphetamine illegal unless you're an ARMS Labs scientist?"

"No, it isn't. It's just hard to get." I answered.

"Naila's just a lying little thief. There's no way her father is really an ARMS scientist."

I glared at her, yelling, "You're just trying to falsely incriminate her to try and make the making of my suit illegitimate!"

"So what? Your suit is illegitimate, and so is your friend!"

I gasped. "How dare you!" I grabbed her by the collar, dragging her off the ground. "You've teased me, mocked me, belittled me, and criticized me to no end. But now you're trying to besmirch my friend! Oh, that's it! That's the last straw!"

Using both my arms, I dragged her over to the stairway. She tried to remove my hand from her collar, without luck.

"What are you doing? Let me go!"

"Ok then." I spoke. I threw her down the stairs and she fell. As she continued to fall down the stairs (there were a lot of them), I looked away and grabbed my box with the Armphetamine inside.

Naila stammered, "T.. Thanks for defending me. Although, are you sure pushing her down the stairs was a good idea?"

"Don't know, don't care. She deserved it. Besides, maybe she'll get a broken limb and think twice about insulting the sick and injured."

"Who knows? Maybe the universe will punish her one day for teasing you."

I looked at her, an eyebrow raised. "You think so?"

She looked at Karai, still falling. "Yeah, I do."

"Alright, I better get home before Karai tries to injure me."

So I ran off, carrying the heavy box back home. Did I feel guilty? I didn't, but a small part of me thought, _Did she really deserve the punishment that I gave her?_


	10. Scandalous!

June 30th, 3050. It was just another day at the restaurant. By now, working here had become more routine and familiar.

I would prepare the dim sim and set them to be steamed over time. I also helped to make the ice cream. It might come as a surprise to some, but we made the ice cream ourselves, mixing, churning and everything! After that, I started preparing the tempura batter, the various sauces, et cetera.

I looked at the clock. _10:58._ The restaurant was set to open in two minutes. I stood outside the kitchen, taking a breather.

"Ready to take on the day?" Bryson asked.

"Always ready." I answered.

"Good to hear." he answered.

A mallet was banged against the gong. 11 o'clock. Noah put down the mallet as the gong's sound resonated throughout the building. We went to our stations and waited for orders to come in. Not too soon after we opened our doors, I got the first ticket of the day.

"One order of shumai, gyoza, Agedashi and Hiyayakko." I read to myself.

I got the chilled tofu from the fridge, set the tofu to fry in the batter, poured the already-made soy sauce over the chilled tofu and then proceeded to brush the dumplings with vegetable oil. I then put the gyoza into the pan to pan fry it. Next, I got out an oval shaped plate for the dim sim and placed them on the plate along with the sauce. I gave the Hiyayakko and Shumai to Eli and he sped off to deliver the appetizers. A timer went off, and I hurried to the fryer, got the fried tofu out of there and put it onto a small plate. Once those were done, I handed the gyoza which just finished frying up, and then handed the Gyoza and Agedashi to Casey.

By the time I got back to my station, I got another ticket.

 _1 order of Dragon Rolls_

 _1 order of Flyfish Rolls_

These were not easy rolls to make, and the flyfish was even more hard to work with since it called for four different kinds of fish; salmon, herring, yellowtail and mahi mahi. All of them had specific instructions on how to be prepared and incorporated into this particular sushi roll. Now, contrary to popular belief, not all sushi consisted of raw seafood. Some rolls were hot, and others were cold. Both were hot, which meant it took longer to prepare them.

Luckily, I already knew how to prepare them all.

First, I had to fry the shrimp in the tempura batter. Once I breaded the shrimp and got them in the fryer, I got the dragon sauce for the roll. I also had to prepare the unagi. It had already been cleaned, but I had to do the cutting and prep-work. I had to remind myself not to grill the unagi for too long, or it would become too chewy and disgusting, yet raw eel was poisonous.

 _Can I call it a double-edged sword?_ I asked myself as I went along preparing it.

"Are you sure you've got this?" Andrea asked. "Unagi is hard to prepare."

I scoffed. "Don't you think I know that? I'm from Japan after all. It's not like I'm rushing through this."

She shrugged and walked. I growled under my breath. That girl was working on my last straw. Before she could even finish her current ticket, I got the Dragon Roll done right.

For the Flyfish, I set the stove-top to a medium-high heat and seasoned the yellowtail with a pinch of salt and pepper before adding a bit of olive oil to the pan. Then I started to grill the salmon. The grill was far from my station, so I had be careful while grilling it. The herring was poached and the mahi mahi was broiled. Poaching the herring didn't take too long, only about ten minutes. Once all of the fish was ready, I assembled the rolls by rolling them in dasima, a kind of edible seaweed, and finished the entree, creating a dozen Flyfish rolls.

Then came the lunch rush. I ended up getting three tickets at once.

 _Oi vey..._

* * *

It was roughly four o'clock. I was happy to get off early. I was exhausted. Since the car used for the carpool was broken and needed to be repaired, I had to take the bus home. After paying for a ticket, I took my seat and watched on as the bus rolled on through the city. I looked at the ARMS communicator and for the fourth match, it showed me up against... someone I had never seen or heard of before.

 _Oh, dear._ I thought. _I don't know anything about my opponent. How am I going to face em?  
_

I didn't have the time to ponder that question.

"Broadway Street! Everyone for Broadway!"

I got off the bus and shortly afterwards, the bus left. I walked to the entrance of the hotel. As I entered the lobby of Buster Beach resort, I found Dr. Coyle sitting on the sofa with a pencil in hand and a clipboard on her lap. She was viewing footage of one of Kid Cobra's previous fights.

"Hmm... So his ARMS not only look like snake scales, he also acts as if he was a snake." she said, writing something down.

I scratched my head. "Like he was a snake? What's that supposed to mean?"

She looked towards me curiously. "Have you heard of the Controversial Cobra theory?"

With a raised eyebrow, I answered, "I can't say that I have."

"Well then let me explain it you; due to the fact that Kid Cobra was born with the ARMS gene, his race is unconfirmed and the fact that he never takes off his mask, many people believe that he is half-human, half-snake."

"That sounds ludicrous!"

She chuckled in response. "That's what I thought at first, but after hearing the evidence some of the believers of this theory offered, and doing some research on my own, I've come to accept and fully support this theory."

I folded my arms. "And what so called evidence did you find?"

"Well for one thing, in addition to the facts I already mentioned, his hood and his posture both look like a snake ready to pounce on its prey. Not only that, he avoids answering certain personal questions, namely about his past and his family." she answered. "One of the questions he was asked during an interview three months ago, 'What do your parents think of your career as the inventor of snakeboarding and being the best at that said career?' He refused to answer and walked away. Seems suspicious, hmm?"

"That... that's crazy! There's no way he could be part snake!" I retorted. "And what does that one question have to do with anything?"

"It's not the only question he's evaded. Other questions he's avoided or refused to answer include but aren't limited to; where he was born, his real name, and his backstory. Most importantly, he blatantly refuses to remove his mask." I opened my mouth, but I couldn't think of a way to retaliate. I closed my mouth and sighed. "You've run out of retorts." I nodded sadly. She chuckled. "Check and mate."

"I don't want to believe you." I turned away and walked away. "I can't."

I went up the elevator and went back to my room.

 _She's wrong. She doesn't know what she's talking about. Is she crazy?_

I then remembered events that occurred a few days ago. I found Dr. Coyle and Springtron in the lobby examining some photos. She held a photo in her left hand.

"You didn't catch her name?" Dr. Coyle asked her robot assistant.

"She hardly spoke at the funeral." Springtron beeped.

Coyle sighed. "Now how are we going to identify her?"

She put the photo back down and I examined it thoroughly. The woman in the photo had black hair knotted into a bun and blue eyes. She wore a long sleeved black dress that reached to her knees. Below her bosom was a tied up black ribbon that could be seen from behind. She wore white gloves on her hands and a golden bracelet with black jewels on her right wrist. She wore black heels and her face looked familiar. No makeup, and no scar. But yet...

"Andrea Williams?"

"You know her?"

"It looks like my coworker, Andrea. Yet she does not have a scar on her forehead."

Dr. Coyle examined the photo of Andrea I had. She mused to herself for a minute or two before breaking the silence. "They appear to be exactly the same. She must have gotten the scar sometime after the funeral. Although, I notice a recurring trend. Why is she always covering her arms and hands?"

"She claims it's because she gets cold easily."

She handed Andrea's work uniform photo back to me. "Hmm... Most interesting."

"Do you really think Andrea could have stolen from Eric Lockhart?"

"We don't know enough about her to draw any conclusions, but the fact that she was the only one wearing black heels at the funeral service says something. Add in the fact that she covers herself." She sighed. "Maybe I'm overthinking this."

"Have you found any evidence as to who might have done it?"

"So far, the only piece of evidence I've found is part of a broken heel that's most black and a little blue." She held up a plastic bag with part of the heel. I had to squint to see the blue part, but I could see it once I looked hard enough.

"Were you able to examine the remains of his casket?"

"After a long talk of trying to convince the undertaker to let me examine the casket of Eric Lockhart, he caved in. Not only are his ARMS gone, his mask has been stolen as well." She snapped her fingers. "I have a new assignment for you, Springtron. Using the recent upgrades I have given you, I want you to find Andrea Williams and get within close enough proximity to scan her DNA."

"Hmm... I will need to think about how to approach her, but it will be done."

Springtron ran off.

 _What's the line between insanity and genius?_ I thought as I laid flat upon my bed.

* * *

After a long nap, I woke up around 6 o'clock. I got up and walked through the halls, trying to figure how to get to the first floor and hopefully speak to Mark about who my opponent was. I ended up taking a wrong turn and getting lost. As I roamed the halls, I saw a door left wide open. It was a dark room, so I thought it might have been a vending machine. I entered the dark room and turned the lens on my phone's camera into a flashlight. I noticed that this was actually someone's hotel room. Then I saw a book at a table. My curiosity got the best of me, and I opened the book to a random page. The first section I read was only a quarter of a page long.

 _Name: Jeffery, aged ?. Rank: 1-Cannon Fodder_

 _Jeffery, aka The Cannon Fodder, is without a doubt, the weakest opponent I've ever seen. His low stats and lack of fighting ability make it hard for me to find anything positive to say about him. I guess if nothing else, he is persistent. But it's also the persistence that gets him beaten time and time again. What I'd like to know is why he continues going this when he's gotten beaten the living day lights out of him so many times. I've heard a number of theories, but all attempts by everyone to interview the subject for answers has ended in failure. It doesn't help that we hardly know anything about him...  
_

 _06/07/3050- Today, I actually had to fight him. Too easy. I got two perfect rounds in a row, never once getting hit. Way too easy. When will they send me a real opponent?_

It seemed that most of the fighters had one to one and a half pages of notes about them. She also ranked the fighters on a scale of 1 to 10. One was cannon fodder and ten was the toughest of the tough. It happened to land on my page.

 _Name: Mechanica, aged 15. Rank: 8-Formidable_

 _I must admit, Mechanica is one of the cleverest ARMS fighters I've seen._ _She is a young genius. She almost sort of reminds me of myself during my younger years._ _Mechanica's suit affords her remarkable mobility and endurance, but it's much too bulky. The amateur craftsmanship's made her the equivalent of a sitting duck! At least, that's what I thought until she went up against Ninjara.  
_

 _[...]_

 _The intelligence and technical prowess necessary to create such a power suit must be formidable. However, the execution is lacking a certain…panache._

"Wow, that's harsh."

I stopped reading and flipped to another page. Eventually, I landed on Min Min's page.

 _Name: Min Min, aged 18. Rank: 6-Slightly above average_

 _Min Min has certainly been one of the more interesting fighters to examine. Her ramen arms don't seem like they would be really strong, but she has the ability to transform her left arm into a dragon, which not only does more damage, but causes her ARM weapon to be permanently charged until she is knocked down. That dragon arm! That transformative power! If only I could have one of my very own... Though I've noticed Min Min relies heavily on that spin kick of hers. Ha! Big mistake. If only I could get some of those scales...  
_

 _06/19/3050- I've struck gold! After waiting for the right moment, I have been able to acquire Min Min's scales. It was not an easy task. Shortly after Indra left the Ramen Bowl and crowd dispersed, Ninjara noticed that Min Min wasn't waking up. As he called the emergency number, I poured the Armphetamine onto her left arm. As I predicted, her left arm transformed into a dragon. While he was distracted, I was able to grab ten scales from her. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to pour the chemical to reverse the Armphetamine. As he hung up, I put the tin of treasure away. He looked at Min Min and noticed her dragon ARM I responded with, "No time for questions. We have to get her to the ambulance!" And so the thought was dismissed from his mind. I got the scales, and Ninjara and Min Min were none the wiser.  
_

I stopped reading there. She wouldn't, would she? I looked around in the drawers of the table and saw a glowing orange light. I dug through the items and found a tin. It contained green scales glowing with an orange aura around them.

I gasped. "She stole... the scales from Min Min? How could she do something so... so scandalous?!"

Apparently, I didn't notice the footsteps but I knew the scientist had stepped into the room when she asked, "Mechanica? What are you doing here?"

I turned to face her as she turned on the lights. "Aren't you ashamed?"

The rad scientist looked me at curiously. "What are you talking about?"

I held up the tin. "You took those scales from Min Min and she doesn't even realize it! How could you fool the world?"

"Oh, young girl, you do not understand." She took the tin from my hands and put it in another drawer. "After the experience of the last client I tried to acquire certain DNA from for scientific purposes, I theorized that Min Min would refuse. So what better solution than to take it when nobody's looking?"

I blinked twice. "Ninjara didn't even notice?"

"He couldn't have. If did, he would have confronted me about it by now." she reasoned.

I gritted my teeth. "I can't believe you. Min Min deserves to know the truth."

"You wouldn't want to do that. What kind of genius are you to try and incriminate me, someone who has helped you in the past?"

I tried to fight a feeling of guilt. Who would I be to incriminate and be a snitch by ratting out Dr. Coyle? I stood my ground. "Forget it. I'm telling them, and there's nothing you can say to change my mind!"

As I walked away, she floated in front of me, blocking my path. "Don't be like that. Isn't there something you're trying to obtain?" she asked. She saw my eyes wide open and what must have been a curious, confused look on my face. "Gotcha."

I looked at her sadly. "You're right. There is something I'm looking for."

"Tell you what; you keep quiet about the fact that I have Min Min's scales, and I'll help you find what you seek." She pointed to the notebook. "I saw you flipping through the pages of my private journal about the ARMS fighters." She smirked, raising an eyebrow. "Why were you reading those pages?"

I rubbed my arm with my right hand quickly. "I'm trying to find information about my next opponent."

Dr Coyle looked at me, smirking. "And who is your opponent?"


	11. Armed and Not Ready

Author's Notes:

-As interesting as Colonel Moxie is, she does not belong to me.

-Also, to my fans; thanks for your patience. This chapter was a beast to write. Also breaks my record for longest chapter ever written. I hope you enjoy it.

* * *

 _I can't believe this! I am freaking out! I'm going up against Colonel Moxie, who is tough as nails and..._

As I stood at my station, working on several things at once, my mind was in a thousand places. Then I realized I accidentally dropped a sushi roll into the fryer when it was not supposed to be fried. Drat!

"Come on, Marina!" Andrea shouted at me. "You can't afford to be making careless mistakes!"

"Shut it, Andrea! You think this is easy?!"

I removed the tin from the fryer and separated the fried sushi roll from the tempura shrimp before plating it and handing it to a server. I groaned. It was the lunch rush at All Rolled Up, and all the chefs had countless orders to fill. Unfortunately, things were slowly falling into a state of disarray. As I finished making a large order consisting of six different sushi rolls, I felt myself sweating buckets. I stepped into the hallway briefly, drank some water and tried to get away from the kitchen for a brief moment. As I wiped away the sweat on my forehead with my arm, I looked at the dining area. It had never been so crowded. Then I looked closer. We weren't crowded; we were slammed. Every table was filled and the line of people waiting for a table extended to a few people out the door.

 _Damn, we've never been this busy._ I internally mumbled to myself. I felt someone grab me by the shoulder and drag me back into the kitchen. She spun me round in a circle and proceeded to glare at me.

"You really are a slacker!" Andrea exclaimed.

"I'm not a slacker! I'm doing all I can!" I retorted. "Do you realize how crowded it is?!"

"Guys, knock it off!" Austin screamed. He leaned his back against the wall. "We're all just testy because it's super crowded and we've never faced a challenge like this before." Andrea sighed and continued working. "This rivalry between them is driving me nuts..." Austin grumbled, picking up a ticket and walking away.

As I continued cooking up a storm, I tried to remember everything written in Dr. Coyle's notes about my opponent. Moxie's ARMS weapons were the Flashbang, the Rocket and the Ironclad. They had the respective attributes of Stun, Explosion and none. She can accumulate up to ten stacks of Grit, and... oh man, what do they do again?

Before I knew it, it was time for me to leave. At roughly 3:28pm, after finishing my last order of the day, I went to Mr. Anderson's office to inform him that I was soon to depart. He sat there at his desk, reading a big stack of papers. He immediately noticed my presence.

"Hello, Marina." He mentioned for me to enter.

"Hello Mr. Anderson. I came here to inform you that I will soon be leaving for my ARMS match today."

"Yes, I know. I remember you asked for a half-day shift today for that very reason. Good luck in your duel, Mechanica."

"Thank you, sir."

Andrea, who was right behind me, asked, "Did I really just hear that little runt proclaim herself to be Mechanica and that she's going up against Colonel Moxie?"

"Yes, I am Mechanica, and I'm going up against Colonel Moxie. And I'm not a little runt!"

She entered the office, laughing at me. "You don't stand a chance! You don't even know what you're up against." I felt my face turn red with anger. "You should just quit now."

I clinched my right fist and attempted to punch her. "Why you little...!"

"Ahem!" He remarked, my fist only three inches from her face. "Don't you have a match to partake in?"

I looked at him, wide-eyed in terror. "Oh, you're right!" I drew my fist back. "This match starts in less than 30 minutes!"

I quickly ran out of the office, with Mr. Anderson snickering as I left, dashed through the kitchen and exited out the backdoor. My suit leaned up against the wall where I had placed it when I first arrived here today. I jumped in, fired up the engine, and ascended into the sky with the help of my jet-pack, making my way to the ARMS League Gym.

* * *

As I reached the ARMS League Gym and found my way to the Teleporter Lobby, I realized it took less time to get here than I thought. I still had ten minutes before the match began. Okay, what else was there to know about my opponent, the trooper? As I reminded myself of Dr. Coyle's notes, I breathed in, trying to reassure myself that I had this. But my lack of self-confidence began to mess with my thoughts. Colonel Moxie was tougher than nails, and much tougher than Ninjara. Ninjara was a difficult opponent, especially for a rookie like me. And I had only won the first duel by a stroke of luck, especially when the suit began to malfunction. Some people believed I didn't deserve to win that duel. To some extent, they may have been right. Luck saved me during the first match, but I knew that I wouldn't get lucky a second time. This match would require all of my skill.

 _Do I even have that much skill? I'm just a rookie. A rookie in a mecha suit, trying to do the impossible. Karai told me my suit is illegitimate and Andrea told me to quit._ The more logical side of my brain screamed, _No, Marina, you can't let those insults get to your head!_ I tried to breathe in deeply and exhale slowly to calm myself. One match could change everything. Go big or go home. _Well, even if I go down, I'll go down fighting. It ain't over until the end.  
_

"Well... here goes nothing."

I stepped into the Teleporter slot, taking me to the Scrapyard, where the match was to take place. I arrived with seven minutes to spare. I looked around, seeing a lot of my fans, and I saw other fans dressed in a Kevlar vest, dark-tinted goggles and helmet. Not too soon after my arrival, Colonel Moxie arrived. Since she was facing the other way, I saw her red hair was kept in a long ponytail, only visible from behind. She wore the same army helmet and vest her fans were wearing in addition to her green-colored combat uniform and heavy metal boots. Her ARMS were made of barbed wire, and much to my surprise, she was tiny for an ARMS fighter.

She then turned to face me, her face in a scowl, and I saw the freckles on her face along with the dark-tinted goggles, which left her eyes and part of her face obscured. If it weren't for the muscular build and stoic expression on her face, I'd assume she was a young girl pretending to be a soldier. But I knew I was looking at the real deal. "So my adversary arrived early."

"What now? Do we wait out the remaining five minutes?" I asked.

"Well, this is unexpected." the announcer said. "Should we wait?"

"I'd say we better get on with it." Biff answered.

"Well then, on with the show!" the announcer declared. The crowd roared in approval. "In this corner, she's called the Scrapyard Scrapper for a reason! She's turned her foes into scraps leftover from a fight. Give it up for Mechanica!"

Part of the crowd cheered and roared after I was announced. At least they had faith in me. I smiled to myself for a brief moment.

"And in this corner, this woman's tougher than nails and persistent to boot. She knocks down her foes and takes no prisoners! It's The Trooper, Colonel Moxie!"

As the crowd cheered her name, she continued to maintain her unwavering glare.

"It's Mechanica vs 'the trooper', Colonel Moxie! No one really knows what past Moxie hides or how long she's had her ARMS, but she's super tough. Mechanica's suit is also tough, but who is the tougher fighter? Let's get on with the match and find out!" Biff commented.

I started with the Whammer on my left, and the Revolver on my right. I figured I could stun her with my hammer then knock her down with the Revolver. Colonel Moxie went with the Flashbang on her left and the Ironclad on her right. Two glove like ARMS? What was her plan?

"Ready? Fight!"

Colonel Moxie made the first move as she punched her right arm towards me. I swiftly dodged and tried to grab her, only to have her briefly stun me with the Flashbang, dealing a small amount damage plus more from the stun, and knocking me down with the Ironclad. I tried to get her with my Revolver while dodging her Ironclad, but I missed her three times in a row, breaking one of the steel pipes to break. I then guarded myself from Moxie's series of attacks.

 _And I thought Helix was evasive! Well, Coyle never said this would be easy! No one did...  
_

That moment of thought was all it took for me to lower my guard, and that was just what Moxie needed to take the advantage. Her onslaught of attacks persisted and I failed to realize that my shield was broken until it was too late. My ARMS hung uselessly at my sides, so Moxie came in for a grab and I was powerless to stop it. After pulling me in, I took a nasty uppercut from her left ARM, only for her to follow me into the air and deliver a mighty slam from her right that sent me toppling to the ground. As I heaved for breath, I noticed the blinking lights on my suit's control dashboard and they brought me worse news- the match had barely even started and I had already lost over a quarter of my health.

I dashed backwards up the ramp to avoid her Ironclad, then stunned her with the electricity of my charged Revolver. Moving across the raised platform, I tried to get her with the Whammer, but her Flashbang was quicker and I took some damage. I attempted to grab her, but she swiftly sidestepped and avoided my attack. As I threw my Revolver at her again, it ended up colliding with her Flashbang, stopping my attack and resulting in me taking more damage while she gained an orange bar next to her right triangle. I looked closer and realized she actually had two of them.

As I threw my Whammer at her, I noticed that she didn't flinch and took only half of the damage from my hammer like ARM. I noticed one of her stacks of Grit was gone. Then a rush potion appeared in the center of the stage. I immediately rushed towards it, and Colonel Moxie attempted to grab me, but I dashed, avoiding her attack. She attempted to do another grab to get me out of the rush circle, but I stunned her with the electricity of my charged Revolver then knocked her down with the uncharged right ARM for good measure.

Her stacks of Grit were gone, but she had more health than me. I had lost almost half of my health points while she had roughly three quarters of her health left. 69 seconds. I needed a plan to turn this around. Then I felt the familiar vibration throughout my suit. The rush attack was ready to roll! As Moxie got up, I was trying to think of a plan on how to use the rush attack to bring her down. She dashed and jumped, trying to avoid the missiles from my Revolver, although she didn't get very far; She ended up hit by one of them. I used the opportunity to activate my rush attack. A few blows later, she was very low on health.

So close, yet so far. She attempted to jab me with the charged Ironclad, but I jumped up and grabbed her, spinning my ARMS in a circle and punching her out, breaking the second pipe as she fell to the ground. She briefly fell unconscious, lying on her back.

"K.O!" the announcer exclaimed.

"Yahoo!"

She got up and put her ARM glove to her helmet, almost as if she was trying to adjust it. "This war isn't over!"

For the next round, I replaced the Whammer with the Revolver and went with the Homie on my right arm, while Moxie chose to keep the Flashbang and replace the Ironclad with the Rocket, which looked a lot like the Homie, but skinnier, and possibly more painful.

"Ready? Fight!"

The next round began with me throwing out the first punch, but Colonel Moxie was quicker. My prediction was right; her Rocket was quicker and more painful than my Homie. I felt a twinge of jealously, but I tried to shove it aside and focus on the match. After about ten seconds of throwing punches and dodging them, a red bomb appeared towards the middle of the stage. Using my right ARM, I knocked the bomb over in her direction, and she knocked it back towards me. I tried to dash backwards to avoid it, but I realized that I had already reached the perimeter of the ring. As I threw my Revolver towards her, I was backed into a corner with no way out and the bomb was set to explode in two seconds. I tried to guard myself but it was too late.

Ka-boom! The bomb went off right in my face, dealing a significant chunk of damage to my health and knocking me down in the process. I tried to punch her, but she evaded my attack. I tried the same thing again, but she countered with her Rocket. Then it happened again. And again. And again. I then realized she had four stacks of Grit. I growled under my breath and dashed up the platform, trying to evade more of Moxie's never-ending attacks. I punched her down, but she hit me again... with another Rocket. Those thrice-blasted Rockets! I attempted to get some health points off her with the Homie, only for her to get me with a fully charged Flashbang.

I won't lie, I felt kinda jealous about her Rockets. They made my Homies look like firecrackers! I shrugged it off and tried to continue the fight, no matter how hopeless it seemed. And it did look pretty hopeless. My health was in the red zone while she had over half of her health left. And to top it off, with the last attack she now had six stacks of Grit. Then she grabbed me. I tried to strike her, but she shielded herself. 40 seconds left.

 _I've still got time. Maybe I can turn this around._

She then knocked me down with the Flashbang, followed by the Rocket all charged up. The second round was over.

"K.O!" the announcer declared.

I slumped to the ground. "Daugh!"

She bent her left arm and pretended to strike an opponent with her right arm. "I'm an army of one!"

One round left. This next match was for all the marbles. I went with my double Revolver combo as Moxie replaced the Flashbang with the Ironclad. While Moxie swapped out her ARMS, I tried to think of a new plan to bring her down.

 _Please tell me she doesn't retain those stacks of Grit when a new round begins..._ I mentally prayed. I looked at her bar. She still had the six stacks of Grit she ended the round with. Not only that, she had her rush attack ready to go. I sighed. _Oi vey..._ _Looks like I have my work cut out for me._

I looked at her, glaring at me. Why wasn't she smirking? She had a huge advantage. _  
_

The third and final round then began. "Ready? Fight!"

I waited for Colonel Moxie to strike, which she wasted no time in doing. I countered her Ironclad with the left Revolver, knocking down a stack of Grit. She then grabbed me yet again, and before she could grab me a second time, I stunned her with electricity from my Revolver. Four stacks left. My punches ended up colliding with her Ironclad, resulting in me being knocked down by a charged ARM. Then my Revolver collided with her Rocket, each one cancelling each other out. I tried to stun her with the charged Revolver, but she was too quick, and struck me down again. This ended up happening twice over. This was bad, I was losing. 69 seconds left. I had to turn this around.

A health potion appeared in the center of the stage. Colonel Moxie immediately went towards the circle.

"Not on my watch!"

I swiftly grabbed her and threw her out, then entered the circle to refill my health bar. As she got up, I stunned her with a charged Revolver to prevent her from reentering the circle. Soon it disappeared, leaving me with more health than her. Colonel Moxie continued to evade my punches, shifting between dashing and parrying them, trying to survive. By the way she frantically moved, I could tell she wanted victory just as much as I did. But her time was running out. Eventually, she stopped swerving around my punches and shielded herself.

In the brief amount of time she shielded herself, I noticed her symbol on her shield; a circular shield over two diagonal swords. As she let her shield down, I attempted to punch her with the Revolver, but she countered with the Rocket, resulting in another explosion to my face. She threw the first punch, yet they collided again. I attempted to punch her, but she deflected with a punch of her own. Suddenly, in the midst of battle, I remembered the crushing insults thrown at me by my enemies.

 _Your suit is illegitimate!_

 _You should just quit now._

Thinking of the words from my greatest foes, I glared at her, letting my anger empower me.

"It's over, Moxie!"

I knocked Colonel Moxie down with my charged up right ARM. Her health was all gone.

"K.O!"

She fell to the ground. I looked at the clock; 55 seconds before the timer went off. The second circle under my image was filled up. I grinned.

 _Well done, Marina! Wait until...  
_

Suddenly, without any warning, the trooper arose! The entire crowd gasped as she stood, roaring like a lion. I felt a cold chill creep up my arms and my spine, paralyzing me if only for a moment. Never before had I felt so terrified. As she approached me, Colonel Moxie's fans cheered for her, while my side of the crowd revolted in shock and terror. The second white circle disappeared. Then the timer then resumed its countdown.

"Holy cow!" Biff exclaimed. "I've never seen anything like this! What's happening?! It's like she's risen from the dead!"

"But she's alive! How is this possible?!" the announcer asked.

The trooper stopped and growled at me. "I'm not finished with you yet!"

She threw her Rocket towards me, only dodging it by a mere second. I was terrified and horribly confused. How was she still standing?

 _How is this possible?_ I asked, dashing to dodge her ARMS. _She's lost all her health. This should be a technical knockout!_

I looked at the board displaying her stats and realized...

 _Oh man! She has nine stacks of Grit! And I forgot that she isn't knocked out until her health and her Grit are gone!_

I tried to punch her and start knocking her out, but she was quicker, landing a hit on me, filling up her Grit stack to the max. Then she grabbed me and threw me across the stadium, knocking me down to half health. Time was running out. I thought about waiting it out and trying to survive since I technically had more health than her, but my instincts told me that wouldn't work. I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that the only way to win the match was to knock her out. I shielded myself from her Ironclad and Rocket.

 _Oh man... What did Dr. Coyle's notes say on how to defeat her?_

* * *

 **[22 hours earlier...]**

"Who is your opponent?" Dr. Coyle asked me.

"Her name is Colonel Moxie." I answered.

"Ah, the trooper. You certainly have your work cut out for you." She flipped through the pages of her journal, stopping after reaching the right page. "Pages 70-72 contain all the information you'll need. That's two and a half pages worth of notes. Feel free to examine them to your heart's content. You can take pictures of them, although if you do so, do not show them to anyone else. This is for your eyes only. Do you understand?"

I slowly nodded. "Loud and clear."

"Good. I've love to stick around and chat, however, I have some data to look up to see if my theory is correct, so I will leave you to it."

She exited the room. I started reading at the top of page 70.

 _Name: Colonel Moxie, aged 25. Rank: 9-Tougher Than Nails  
_

 _Colonel Moxie, also known as the trooper, is one of the toughest fighters I've ever seen. Right away I can tell she's super serious, yet super strong. She has the ability to accumulate stacks of Grit, which are represented by orange bars to the right of her name above her health bar, when she deflects an incoming punch with one of her own. She can accumulate a maximum of ten stacks of Grit. While she has Grit, she takes half damage and won't flinch from an uncharged punch, similar to the resistance of a heavyweight fighter. Any throw or damage she takes will remove a stack of Grit, save for the chip damage she takes while guarding herself._

 _Due to a practice match between her and Min Min I got to witness, I have figured out two critical pieces of information. The first is that Colonel Moxie isn't knocked out until all her health points and stacks of Grit are vanquished. The second is that this also gives her another advantage; trying to evade and wait out a match if she has no health remaining and a few stacks of Grit won't work._

 _I don't have much negative to say about Colonel Moxie, other than she can't jump very far into the air and her heavy combat gear slows down her normal pace. When it comes to dashing, she's not the slowest but I have seen better. Seriously, why does she carry her old combat gear around if she's no longer in the service?  
_

 _What intrigues me more than her power is her past. There's so much I don't know about her. Did she have her arms before or during her time in the service or was it after her time spent defending her country? If it is the former, did she use her ARMS in combat? And why is she competing in the tournament? Fame, money, thrill? Some other reason? Alas, all attempts to find answers to these questions have ended in failure._

 _Also, she never smiles. I can only wonder what happened to her. Is it perhaps possible that her time in the service has made her cold and bitter? It seems that it could be a possibility, although if that be the case, how did she manage to not lose her temper or her patience when she was approached by a crowd of fans and was asked for autographs and pictures after one of her duels?  
_

 _Her ARMS weapons involve the Flashbang, the Rocket and the Ironclad. The Flashbang is an ARM similar to Max Brass's Nade, with the only difference being that it has the attribute of Stun instead of Explosion damage. The Rocket is skinnier, faster and more powerful than Mechanica's Homie and befittingly has the Explosion attribute. The Ironclad is similar to the Buff, but it's weight and damage increase when charged. An interesting and powerful set of ARMS weapons.  
_

 _As much as I hate to admit it, she is pretty damn powerful. However, I wonder... would it be possible to knock down all ten stacks of Grit at once with the power of a rush attack? Unless I get the opportunity to face her myself, whether in practice, or in the tournament, I may never know..._

* * *

I remembered what I had to do, but I was running out of time. 30 seconds left. I dashed backwards as my shield was about to break, avoiding having my ARMS disabled by her. I avoided her attacks as best as I could and attempted, once again, to get her with the Revolver, but she knocked me down. I felt the rush vibration throughout my suit. I then guarded myself against Moxie's rush attack, but my shield was yellow and it soon broke, leaving me with less than a quarter of my health left. I quickly got up and dashed backwards, trying to avoid her next attack.

15 seconds. I was running out of time.

 _What if I can't do this? What if they were right?  
_

As I dashed to avoid her grab, I looked at the board displaying Moxie's stats. Ten stacks of Grit. Ten seconds numbers in the countdown turned red.

 ** _10, 9..._**

 _Well, Marina, it's now or never!_

Moxie tried to grab me and end the match, but I countered by firing away the rush attack. Colonel Moxie tried to shield herself, but it was too late. She faced the wrath of my super-charged Revolvers. I fired away at her, faster than ever, pretending that she was one of my worst enemies.

 ** _8, 7, 6..._**

 _Karai, my suit is just as legitimate as Twintelle's hair and the ARMS of any other fighter!_

 ** _5, 4, 3..._**

 _Andrea, I know exactly who I'm up against_ _!  
_

 ** _2, 1!_**

 _This is for doubting me!  
_

A blaring alarm went off as the clock reached zero. The timer had ended its countdown as I eliminated the last stack of Grit. Colonel Moxie screamed and was knocked into the wall of red tape that was the entrance to my workshop. She laid there on her left side with left arm across her torso and her right arm next to her stomach. The crowd gasped and then there was silence. I was sweating buckets, my face flushed, heart pounding, and felt drained in more ways than one. I panted as I tried to steady my breathing. Who knew ARMS fights could be so exhausting?

 _Did I win? Did I lose?_ I asked myself in my mind.

After three seconds, one of Colonel Moxie's fan-girls asked, "Is she out?"

A few seconds later, someone in the audience answered, "Moxie's not moving. She's out."

"For real K.O!" the announcer exclaimed.

The second circle under my profile image turned white accordingly. "And the winner is Mechanica!" Biff announced. A majority of the crowd cheered, clapped and roared in approval. "I can't believe it folks, just wow! I thought Mechanica was a goner, but she has managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat!"

My heart leapt. I heard the crowd chant my name.

I flew around in my suit and jumped up, reminding them to remember my name. "Mechanica!"

* * *

I felt on top of the world. I was about to leave the arena and celebrate my victory and then I looked back and saw the trooper there, still unconscious.

"Colonel Moxie!" I got out of my suit and ran over to her. I knelt down and checked her vitals. She was still breathing. I placed my hand on her forehead. She was still warm. I gently tried to shake her awake. "Colonel Moxie?" I shook her a bit harder. "Moxie?" She groaned and presumably opened her eyes underneath the goggles. She sat up. "Are you alright?"

She shoved me away from her, answering, "I'm fine. I'm fine." Moxie then removed her goggles and shifted them to being slightly above her forehead to let the sweat on her face be blown away. I noticed that her eyes were brown. Her arms were no longer stretched out. She stood up. "I hate to admit it, but that was a well fought match. You're not quite the person I thought you were."

Completely confused, I arose from the ground. "What do you mean by that?"

"Hmm... How do I put this in the nicest way?" She folded her arms and mused to herself. "When I first saw you in your previous matches against Ninjara, Helix and Master Mummy, I thought you were just trying to cheat your way into the ARMS Tournament with your suit. I believed you were a liar, a faker, a sheep in wolf's skin." I clinched my fist as she stood there in silence. I was tempted to punch her. "But as I fought you, I realized there was more to it that meets the eye." My anger washed away. I raised an eyebrow and she pointed to her goggles. "In a similar way my goggles make things seem darker when I wear them, I was looking at you the same manner. And in your own strange, unique way, you possess both brains and brawn."

"Wow, um, thanks?"

"Don't push your luck." She sighed. "I'm just wondering where I'll go now that I've been defeated sooner than I anticipated."

"You're not staying here?"

"I don't have any reason to." she explained. "I don't have any friends to cheer on or any desire to get tickets to the finale."

Moxie put her googles over her eyes and was about to walk away. "Wait! Before you leave, do you have any advice for the ARMS Tournament?"

She stopped. "I can't really say that I do other than continue training and keep doing what you're doing. So instead, I'll give you some advice for life in general that I learned during my time in the service. First, appreciate what you have and never take it for granted. In the blink of an eye, everything can change from good to bad. Second, never start a fight you can't win. Now there's a difference between giving up on a battle in the overall war and then wasting your time and energy in a dead end situation. And third, always be wary of the people close to you. Even the closest coworker can stab you in the back." She looked around the Scrapyard. By now, all of the fans had vacated the arena. "Well, it is time for me to depart." She walked away before stopping to look back. "Who knows? Maybe some day we'll meet again, either in the arena or outside of the ring. Good luck, rookie. You're gonna need it."

Colonel Moxie left the arena. My audience with the trooper was over. I smiled to myself. If I could change the perspective of one fighter, maybe I could prove every Debbie-downer wrong.

* * *

I returned to the lobby, looking for the scoreboard to try and figure out who won and who had yet to finish their fourth round match. Waiting for me at the lobby stood Ribbon Girl, Kid Cobra and Dr. Coyle.

"There she is." Dr. Coyle spoke.

"Congratulations, Mechanica!" Ribbon Girl exclaimed.

Kid Cobra gave me a high five. "Congrats, dude!"

"You managed to get a victory against all odds once again." Dr. Coyle noted. "I must admit, towards the end, when Colonel Moxie arose after being seemingly defeated, you looked absolutely horrified."

If my face wasn't already red from the heat, I would have blushed in embarrassment. "I forgot about her being able to continue fighting with Grit when her health is depleted. I'm just fortunate I recalled how to defeat her in time."

Kid Cobra exclaimed, "You pounded away at her like you had a grudge against her!"

"Well..." I rubbed my arm, stuttering. "I... I kinda pretended like she was one of my worst enemies."

All three seemed baffled by my statement, but Coyle was the most confused. "Enemies? I thought only Karai teased you."

"Not anymore. As of today, I have a new foe who wants to bring me down; Andrea."

"Your co-worker?"

I scowled as she finished speaking. "Unfortunately." Smirking, I put my hands on my hips. "But with every match I win, they have to eat their own words. Karai Domen and Andrea Williams, eat your heart out!"

Dr. Coyle smirked in agreement. "It does feel good to prove others wrong, doesn't it?"

I nodded eagerly. "Oh, yes, very much so! Thanks again for letting me use your notes."

"Don't mention it."

"Well, Mechanica, we're moving on to the fifth round." Ribbon Girl said. "I say this calls for a minor celebration, and I know just where to go. Put away your suit and meet me out in the parking lot."

After putting my suit back in my room, I rejoined her in the parking lot, got into her limousine and we went to an ice cream shop in Brooklyn. I was almost worried that Ribbon Girl would be mobbed by fans, but there was hardly anyone there. After getting our respective orders, we sat on a bench outside, enjoying the nice weather. Despite the sun being so bright, it was not scorching hot. Even without shade, we were kept cool by a soft breeze.

"This... this is totally crazy." I said before taking another bite of rocky road ice cream.

She finished her bite of Cherry Garcia. "What is?"

"That I'm here, that I'm fulfilling my dream. That I'm actually fighting in the tournament."

Ribbon Girl looked at me curiously. "So, if you don't mind me asking; why do you fight in the grand prix?"

"Well... I know some fight for fame, money, or even bragging rights, but..." I paused, trying to think of what to say next. "I'm really just fighting for myself. To prove everyone who's doubted me wrong." I looked at her sincerely. "I hope you don't believe my reason to compete in the tournament is selfish."

She chuckled. "It's not a bad reason. A lot of people are fighting to prove themselves." She held the bowl in her hand motioning to herself with the other. I smiled. "That's one of the many reasons I'm here."

"I suppose you're right. From here, we're ascending further, getting better and better. We're not going down. Not easily anyways..."

She put her hand on my shoulder. "No matter what happens, no matter who we're up against, even if we should be pitted against each other, we'll always be friends and we will fight til the very end."

I nodded in agreement, joyous with the recently unfolded events. I just did the impossible. One could argue I had done it four times over. I felt on top of the world. Who or what could stop me now?


	12. On Top of the World

Author's Notes:

-Hey guys and girls. Sorry again about leaving you on a roughly three and a half month long hiatus between chapters without warning. (Chapter 11 was hard to write...) Some more reviews would be nice, but I'll continue either way. (Dang, writing this fanfic is going to be hard after abandoning it for months...)

-The theme Mechanica hums to herself is called 'The Scrapyard', the theme for Mechanica's stage.

-I know this is a short chapter, but I'm just trying to restart this engine. Hope you enjoy.

Anyway, let's start the show!

* * *

The next thing I knew, I was in the strange realm of my dreams. Instead of having a few brief dreams, I had one longer one.

Magni was about to face Max Brass. Max Brass equipped the Klablammer on his left ARM and the Nade on his right. Magni choose a grey and black hammer like ARM on both of his arms.

"Ready! Fight!"

Magni made the first move. He charged his hammers, which had an electric power towards Max Brass, only for the champion to sidestep and dodge them. Max Brass fired his Nade and Klablammer towards the viking. He dodged them both and then guarded against the charged Nade. Magni charged his hammers again and aimed towards Brass, this time actually managing to hit him and disable his ARMS with his electric power. He then proceeded to grab the commish. Magni's grab consisted of him dragging his opponent towards him, kicking him into the air, getting out a real hammer (a very heavy hammer) and smashing his opponent into the ground with it. This did a lot of damage. Wow, that looked painful!

Max Brass got up and tried to guard himself him Magni's next attack, but his shield aura was orange and was quickly broken by Magni's rush attack. Max Brass had lost roughly half of his half while Magni hadn't even been hit once! This guy was making fighting against Max Brass look like child's play! Of course, Max Brass had a way to retaliate. First he smacked his opponent with a charged up Klablammer and then a Nade. Next, he dashed towards Magni, threw some attacks at him, then grabbed him. Magni got up and tried to think of his next move. As he dashed around to avoid Max Brass's attacks, I noticed that Magni was pretty fast on the ground, but he wasn't very fast in the air. But he compensated for it by charging his arms. I then noticed that as he charged up his ARMS, his punches not only got stronger, small bits of electricity seemed to dance on his arms and give him a brief power up for ten seconds. With that power and a few more charged punches, Max Brass had lost the first round.

"K.O!" the announcer declared.

"Face the hammer of Thor!"

"OOOH NOOO!"

The second round soon began. Magni kept the hammer on one arm and used a golden-whip like arm on his right. Max Brass

"Ready! Fight!"

It went by almost in the blink of an eye, or perhaps that was just how my dream perceived it. Max Brass charged up his punches, hoping to inflict more damage. He did do a lot of damage, as Magni attempted to dodge, but Max Brass jumped down from the square platform, grabbed him and threw him across the arena. Magni charged his whip like arm and did some damage, but the next thing I know, he was knocked down with a normal punch. Max Brass had won this round.

"You loose! Ha ha ha!"

He spoke something that was barely audible. Was it... something in Old Norse language?

The third and final round then began. No changes to the ARMS gloves being worn was made, but both of them were fiercely determined to win this next match. This next round would determine who won the championship.

"Ready! Fight!"

Magni started out the round with a raw rush attack in an attempt to throw Max Brass off guard, but it didn't work as well as he had hoped it would. Max Brass shielded himself, but since his shield was yellow, towards the end it broke and Magni was able to get in one attack before the rush attack power wore off. He had taken some damage, but he was still strong and still fighting. He tried to punch Magni, but he quickly dodged it multiple times before Max Brass got to grab him. A red bomb , Max Brass knocked it towards his opponent, who sent it right back and it went off right front of him, causing him to take some damage. As soon as Max Brass's red-energy glow began, Magni used his rush attack, knocking him down and out.

The match was over. Magni had won.

"And the winner is Magni!"

"Yes!" he cheered.

His proceeded to do his victory pose, which consisted of him taking the same hammer from earlier out of nowhere and holding it high in the air and lightning striking in the background. "To Asgard and beyond!"

I woke up, all without the aid of an alarm clock, feeling on top of the world. But there was one thing I didn't understand; why did I keep having these dreams?

* * *

Since using my suit was more faster and efficient than the car pool, I decided to use it to take myself to and from work each day. Before I knew it, I found myself back at All Rolled Up. As I put my suit back in its designated spot, I saw and heard Andrea, groaning.

"Oh hello there, Doubty McDoubtface." I said with a smirk, exiting my suit. "Have you heard the news? I won the match against Colonel Moxie!"

Andrea rolled her eyes. "Ugh. Don't remind me."

"And you said you had no idea who I was up against." I pointed at her. "Ha! In your face!"

"Ok, you don't gotta rub it in!"

"I won!"

Her face turned red from anger and she stormed off. I was so enjoying this. Who knew that proving others wrong just felt this good? I went to my station and prepared myself for another run at All Rolled Up. As another shift started, I started humming my jam to myself. I was able to finish orders even quicker than ever. And when the lunch rush started, I felt on top of the world.

 _1 order of Shumai_

 _2 orders of Gyoza_

 _1 order of Flyfish rolls_

I didn't even mind making the flyfish rolls this time. As I prepared the fish, I felt like I was drifting in and out of many thoughts.

Andrea looked at me, extremely annoyed. "Would you stop humming that song?"

I looked at her, annoyed. "Come on, Andrea! I'm in a good mood!"

"You're just overconfident from that one victory!"

"I'm not being overconfident! I won and your just jealous!"

"Guys, can it!" Andrew exclaimed. "We got over fifty orders to fulfill and Stella's still sick!"

"No I'm not!" she shouted while grating ginger.

"Oh, right. Sorry!"

Lunch rushes were always difficult, but not today. Today was a very good day, made more so fortunate that I was able get off early that day. To keep up with practicing for the matches, I challenged Ribbon Girl to a match. The two of us did a coin toss to determine who's stage we would fight on. Since she correctly called it, we were on her home grounds, about 35 seconds into a standard match. Since I was low on health, I was trying to hide myself while thinking of a new strategy. With a Sparky on her right and a Slapamander on her left, she was able to attack from both afar and up close. I had both of my Revolvers up, speaking to Ribbon Girl to try and throw her off guard while coming up with a plan.

"I don't get it, Rib." I said from behind the blocks. She punched the blocks in her attempt to get to me. "No matter what I do, Andrea just seems to hate me. And I never did anything to make her mad. She's just cruel to me for no good reason!"

"Some people just can't be pleased. When I first became a singer, I learned the hard way that you can't please everyone." She moved closer to me before jumping several times in the air. "As long as you got a majority on your side, does the small percentage of people really even matter?"

She then grabbed me and tossed me into the other side of the ring, knocking me down and knocking me out.

"No fair! I was distracted!" I protested as I got up.

"Hey, all's fair in love and war!" she retaliated.

I smiled. "Fair point."

She smirked. "Should we face each other in the ring, I won't be easy on you."

I chuckled. "And I wouldn't have it any other way."

* * *

Everything seemed to be going well. One might even argue too well. A few days later, things began to crash. It was just another shift at work. I was humming my jam and making cooking even more fun for myself. While outside taking a break, I ran to Andrea, standing there with a scowl on her face.

"Still overconfident it seems."

"Seriously, Andrea? When are you going to learn? I'm the best of the best, and I'll never let it rest."

"Oh please. You're not a real ARMS Fighter. You're nothing. "

"Shut up!" I protested. "You don't know what you're talking about!"

"You're just a liar, a faker, a pretender, a sheep in wolf's clothing!"

"Stop it!

"What hurts more, the fact that I'm right? Or the fact that there's nothing you can do to prove me wrong?"

I screamed in rage. "You don't know anything about ARMS! You're just a powerless, ignorant little brat! If you want power so badly, how about you get a taste of mine?!" I got into my mecha suit and fired it up. I fired the uncharged Revolver at her, only for her to backflip and dodge my attack.

"Oh, Mechanica, you are just a fool!"

"Shut up, Andrea!"

I fired at her again, this time charging up my Homie to get her. Alas, I missed again.

"You're just a faker! A liar! You're nothing!"

"That's not true!" I exclaimed, guarding myself to show her my shield and charge up my arms. "Don't you realize how fast and powerful this ARMS Mecha suit is?!"

"Fast! You're slower than molasses!"

"You know nothing, Andrea! This suit took me months to make!" I punched her with the Revolver again, only to miss and hit the wall.

"It's a shame then. All of your hard work will have been for nothing." She pointed her right index finger to her left. "Observe."

She pointed to All Rolled Up, which was damaged and visibly shaking. Cracks were seen, the windows were shattered and the place was horribly damaged. I widened my eyes in terror. "No..." The shaky structure came crumbling down in the blink of an eye. There was nothing left but a ton of rubble. My fellow employees and Mr. Anderson were not hurt in the collapse, but most of them were very angry.

"Marina Yamada!" Mr. Anderson exclaimed.

"Uh oh..."

I was in real deep trouble now.


	13. Down in the Dumps

Author's Notes:

-Hey everyone. Sorry about the long wait. I know I've been a bit slow updating this. You see, for a long time, I was debating on how to continue the story. Even if updates are slower compared to my other fanfics, I haven't forgotten about this one. (I don't want to put another fanfic onto hiatus if I can help it...) I'll try to update more often, or if not every 3-6 months. No promises.

Now, let's get this train rolling.

* * *

I knew I was in a lot of trouble now. I wanted to run, but my feet were glued to the ground. Many of my follow employees glared at me. Then my boss, Mr. Anderson approached me with his arms angrily crossed and an evil, harsh glare in his eyes.

"I... I can't believe this. I knew that you were hotheaded, but this... deliberate destruction and impulsiveness..." He growled.

I got my arms out of my suit, hunching myself over the board as if I was leaning on a railing with my hands in a surrender position. "Look, this isn't my fault! I did not mean to destroy the place. Andrea tricked me!"

"She lies!" Andrea exclaimed.

"No, you lie!"

"Silence!" Mr. Anderson ordered, stopping our argument before he turning to face me. "Why should I believe you?"

I pointed to Andrea. "She bamboozled me! I would never deliberately destroy this place! You believe me, right Bryson?" He turned away, not responding. "Bryson?"

"Well, it doesn't matter. Mechanica, aka Marina, is the one with the suit and the destructive weapons, and therefore, she's the one at fault! Either way, you're fired!"

I felt like I had been punched in the gut. "Fired?!"

"I never thought I'd have to do this, but you leave me no choice but to report you to the authorities!"

"No, don't!" I pleaded.

He put away his mobile. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't call the cops on you."

"Well, because..." I paused, trying to find the right words to say. "Do you know how long I've dreamed of coming here? Since basically forever. I've been saving up almost all of my money since my 10th birthday, long before I ever started building this suit. My country's foreign exchange rate is not on par with this one, and I'm close to broke. The mecha suit itself is so complex it took six months to make, eight if you count me breaking my right arm before I could attempt to finish it for the winter season. Not only that, I've been teased about my dreams of ARMS glory since I was a child, I've had friends and acquaintances turn their backs on me, I've been mocked, insulted and teased to no end. Also, I've come so far in the tournament. If I'm arrested now, then all those years of hard work, all those efforts... will have been for nothing."

He frowned, putting his fists on his hips. "I said give me a good reason, not a quick summary of your backstory." He got out his phone, ready to alert the authorities.

"Wait!" He looked at me all bug-eyed as I jumped out of my suit. "Isn't there something I can do to make amends?"

"So you want to do something to pay up for the damage you caused to my restaurant?"

I knelt on the ground and bowed before him. "Yes, I'll do anything! Anything!"

"Very well then." I slowly stood up to look him in his eyes. "Do you know how much it cost me to start up this business?"

"I... I can't say that... I do." I hesitantly answered.

"$50,000. And that is the amount you must pay me back."

"I think that..."

"Oh, and one more thing, you have until August 6th, 3050 to pay up. That's thirty days."

"What?! Did you not hear the 'I'm close to going broke' part of my speech?"

"I know, but I don't care. If you don't have the money by sundown on that day, consider yourself arrested." I gasped, nearly choking on air. My former boss turned to the rest of his employees. "The rest of you, come with me and we'll discuss what we do from here."

Mr. Anderson and the other employees left, save for one. Andrea simply just smirked. "You really should just quit now."

"Andrea, come."

"Be right there!" she called to Anderson. She smirked as she turned back to me. "You no good girl..."

She laughed as she ran. I slumped my knees to the ground.

 _Great. Fan-fucking tastic._

* * *

I was too depressed to fly back to the hotel, so I got back into my suit and trudged all the way there. Hours had passed as the sky turned from blue, to orange with hints of yellow, to orange, to orange and blue, and finally to dark blue. After night had fallen over New York City, I walked into the Buster Beach resort and saw the TV showing reruns of the 4th round matches. On the screen, I saw Indra, doing another of her victory poses. She stood with her left fist enclosed and placed on her waist as she twirled her tiara in her right hand.

"Hail to the Queen!" Indra commanded.

At that point, I had lost it. Using the stairs, I maneuvered my suit to stomp up the stairs to the nearest gym. After going up to the second floor, I entered the gym, where several ARMS fighters were lifting weights. Twintelle used her arms and her hair to lift weights simultaneously as Springman seemed to have trouble lifting a barbell. Ribbon Girl had her arms in their normal state lifting some dumbbells. There were a few others as well, but I didn't notice most of them as I went towards a punching bag.

Using my suit, I proceeded to punch the bag rapidly, my mechanical ARMS moving even faster than I ever punched anything with my normal arms.

"Damn Andrea... Damn you!"

The punching bag went flying, but I didn't really care. As it bounced up from the wall to the ceiling to the ground, I used my jet pack to fly over to it and crouched down to continue punching it. After punching it hard enough, it went flying. Upon this, the other fighters quickly fled the scene, but if be honest, I hardly noticed or cared. When the punching bag hit the floor, I began envisioning Andrea taunting me and laughing at me as my metal suit stomped repetitively on top of the bag. The floor shook with each stomp, but didn't even care. I did this until I realized that the bag under my feet had broken into two pieces.

It felt like fire surrounded me, and all I wanted to do was burn everything down. I breathed rapidly a few times, seething like a raging bull and starting to punch a different punching bag. Stretching my mechanical ARMS out to remove the bag from its post, I shoved it against a wall angrily, pretending that Andrea was in the bag's place. I punched the punching bag rapidly with my mecha suit's ARMS. I wanted to make her hurt, I wanted to destroy her! I continued this until white padding came out of the bag and there was nothing left of it.

I saw Andrea everywhere I looked and punched everything. How long I was doing this, I didn't know. The next thing I knew, I was stunned with electricity and thrown into a wall.

"Ahh!" I hit the wall with a thud. "Oh... Ouch!" I glared at Byte and Barq. "What was that for?!"

"What was that for?" Byte angrily asked me. "Do you not realize what you've done?"

I gasped in horrible realization. "No..."

The gym had been utterly destroyed. Several weight lifting machines were broken, several metal bars had been dented or snapped and there was glass and small bits of metal and debris as far as the eye could see.

"I... I did this?"

"It seems that's the case." Dr. Coyle answered, her Parabolas equipped. Still wearing her ARMS gloves, she folded her arms. "Unless there's another logical explanation."

"No ma'm." I hung my head in shame. "I'm afraid there isn't."

Everyone else came rushing back into the room.

"Mechanica, are you alright?" Ribbon Girl asked.

"What have you done?" Misango asked.

"Nice going, Mechanica." Springman sarcastically quipped.

"Mechanica?" Kid Cobra asked. "What happened?"

"Yeah, Scraper. What happened?" Byte asked.

I frowned. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Mechanica, you must..."

"You're not even a real cop!" I lashed out in rage. "You're just a robot! You have no real right or authority to interrogate me!" I motioned to everyone else standing there. "None of you!"

"Mechanica..." Kid Cobra hesitated. "It's not like that."

"Mademoiselle," Twintelle began. "We're just concerned about you."

"Just leave me alone! You wouldn't understand!"

In sorrow, I quickly shoved Springman and Master Mummy out of the way to exit the gym and stomped away in my suit trying to hold back tears in my eyes. Once I got to the staircase, used my jetpack and flew up the stairs to the tenth floor. I jumped out of my suit as I reached the door to my room, unlocked it with my card, and used the remote to guide the suit to the lower right corner of the room before slamming the door and throwing the remote against the bed frame. I sat down on the bed and the tears I held back began to fall. I sobbed into my knees, letting the emotions out in the safety of my room.

 _I don't get it. If Andrea's the one that made me so upset, then why is it that upon seeing Indra I just lost it?_ I internally sighed. _I guess that matters little now. I've got a bigger problem on my hands. How in the world am I going to pay 50,000 dollars in thirty days?! Maybe I should have just stayed home._ I mentally slapped myself. _Come on, Mechanica, you're too far in! You've beaten four different ARMS fighters! How can you quit now?_

 _Everyone's been teasing me, telling me that I can't do it. I've been trying to use that anger to motivate myself, push myself farther and harder than I would have ever imagined, but now those same emotions have caused not only the destruction of All Rolled Up, but one of the ARMS gyms as well. Karai always told me that I have no chance of winning the ARMS tournament. What if she's right? What if Andrea's right? What if all my haters are right? What if I can't do this?_

 _I've hurt everyone I know, care about and love. Including myself..._

Through sniffs, I lifted my head slightly and reached in my pocket for my phone and tried to call all my friends. None of them answered. I sighed somberly.

 _Come on, Marina. Even if you texted them, they probably wouldn't respond._ I set my phone face-down on the nightstand. _Everyone probably hates me now..._ _Looks like I really am alone in more ways than one... One of the few second generation ARMS fighters, the only one without real ARMS, and the only one with no friends._

I sobbed into my knees again. _Why does Andrea hate me? Why is fate so cruel to me?_


End file.
